STEREOTYPE   EDITION. 


THE 


BROTHERHOOD  OF  THIEVES; 


OR, 


PIGTUIRB 


AMERICAN    CHURCH   AND    CLERGY. 


BY  STEPHEN  S.FOSTER. 


BOSTON: 

ANTI-SLAVERY   OFFICE,   25   CORNHILL. 

1844. 


THE 


BROTHERHOOD  OF  THIEVES; 


OR, 


AMERICAN    CHURCH   AND    CLERGY 

A  LETTER 

TO 

NATHANIEL     BARNEY, 

OF    NANTUCKET. 


BY  STEPHEN   S.FOSTER. 


BOSTON: 

ANTI-SLAVERY   OFFICE,   25    CORNHILL. 
1844. 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  C"  C 

SArvTA  BARBARA 

LETTER. 


ESTEEMED  FRIEND  : 

IN  the  early  part  of  last  autumn,  I  received  a  letter  from 
you,  requesting  me  to  prepare  an  article  for  the  press,  in 
vindication  of  the  strong  language  of  denunciation  of  the 
American  church  and  clergy,  which  I  employed  at  the  late 
Anti-Slavery  Convention  on  your  island,  and  which  was  the 
occasion  of  the  disgraceful  mob,  which  disturbed  and  broke 
up  that  meeting.  In  rny  answer,  1  gave  you  assurance  of 
prompt  compliance  with  your  request ;  but,  for  reasons  satis- 
factory to  myself,  I  have  failed  to  fulfil  my  promise,  up  to  the 
present  time.  The  novelty  of  the  occasion  has  now  passed 
away;  the  deep  and  malignant  passions  which  were  stirred 
in  the  bosoms  of  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  your  people, 
have,  doubtless,  subsided ;  but  the  important  facts  connected 
with  it  are  yet  fresh  in  the  memories  of  all ;  and,  as  the  oc- 
casion was  one  of  general,  not  local,  interest,  and  the  spirit 
which  WHS  there  exhibited  was  a  fair  specimen  of  the  gen- 
eral temper  and  feeling  of  our  country  towards  the  advo- 
cates of  equal  rights  and  impartial  justice,  I  trust  it  will  not 
be  deemed  amiss  in  me  to  make  it  a  subject  of  public  notice, 
even  at  this  late  period. 

But  in  the  remarks  which  1  propose  to  make,  it  will  be  no 
part  of  my  object  to  vindicate  myself  in  the  opinion  of  the 
public,  against  the  foul  aspersions  of  those  whose  guilty  quiet 
my  preaching  may  have  disturbed.  Indeed,  to  tell  the  truth, 
I  place  a  very  low  estimate  on  the  good  opinions  of  my 
countrymen  —  quite  as  low,  I  think,  as  they  do  on  mine,  if  I 
may  judge  from  their  very  great  anxiety  to  have  me  speak 
well  of  them,  which  1  positively  never  can,  so  long  as  their 
national  capital  is  a  human  flesh-mart,  and  their  chief  magis- 
trate is  a  slave-breeder.  The  most  that  I  can  do  is  to  pledge 
myself  never  to  mob  them,  nay,  that  I  will  not  even  be  dis- 
pleased with  them,  for  speaking  ill  of  me,  while  their  charac- 
ter remains  what  it  now  is.  My  opponents,  among  whom 


rank  most  of  the  church  and  clergy  of  the  country,  have 
disturbed  a  majority  of  the  meetings  which  I  have  attended, 
within  the  last  nine  months,  by  drunken,  murderous  mobs, 
and,  in  several  instances,  they  have  inflicted  severe  injury 
upon  my  person ;  but  I  value  this  violence  and  outrage  as 
proof  of  their  deep  conviction  of  the  truth  and  power  of 
what  I  say.  I  deem  the  reproach  of  such  men  sufficient 
praise.  And  I  here  tender  them  my  thanks  for  the  high 
compliment  they  have  so  often  paid  to  my  opinions,  in  the 
extreme  measures  to  which  they  have  resorted  to  compel  me 
to  speak  in  their  praise.  But  so  long  as  their  character  re- 
mains such  that  I  can  bestow  no  commendations,  I  shall 
ask  none  in  return. 

Nor  is  it  my  intention,  in  this  letter,  to  weaken,  by  expla- 
nations, the  force  of  my  testimony  against  the  popular  reli- 
gion of  our  countiy,  for  the  purpose  of  allaying  the  bloody 
spirit  of  persecution  which  has  of  late  characterized  the 
opposition  to  my  course.  True,  my  life  is  in  danger,  espe- 
cially whenever  I  attempt  to  utter  my  sentiments  in  houses 
dedicated  to  what  is  called  the  worship  of  God ;  but  He  who 
has  opened  to  my  view  other  worlds,  in  which  to  reap  the 
rewards  and  honors  of  a  life  of  toil  and  suffering  in  the 
cause  of  truth  and  human  freedom,  in  this,  has  taught  me 
to  "  be  not  afraid  of  them  that  kill  the  body,  and  after  that 
have  no  more  that  they  can  do."  Hence  I  have  no  pacifica- 
tory explanations  to  offer,  no  coward  disclaimers  to  make. 
But  I  shall  aim  to  present  to  the  comprehension  of  the 
humblest  individual,  into  whose  hands  this  letter  may  chance 
to  fall,  a  clear  and  comprehensive  view  of  the  intrinsic  moral 
character  of  that  class  of  our  countrymen  who  claim  our 
respect  and  veneration,  as  ministers  and  followers  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace.  I  am  charged  with  having  done  them 
great  injustice  in  my  public  lectures,  on  that  and  various 
other  occasions.  Many  of  these,  who  make  this  charge, 
doubtless,  honestly  think  so.  To  correct  their  error  —  to 
reflect  on  their  minds  the  light  which  God  has  kindly  shed 
on  mine  —  to  break  the  spell  "in  which  they  are  now  held  by 
the  sorcery  of  a  designing  priesthood,  and  prove  that  priest- 
hood to  be  a  "  Brotherhood  of  Thieves "  and  the  "  Bulwark 
of  American  Slavery  "  —  is  all  that  I  shall  aim  to  do. 

But  I  ought,  perhaps,  in  justice  to  those  who  know  nothing 
of  my  religious  sentiments,  except  from  the  misrepresenta- 
tions of  my  enemies,  to  say,  that  I  have  no  feelings  of  per- 
sonal hostility  towards  any  portion  of  the  church  or  clergy 
of  our  country.  As  children  of  the  same  Father,  they  are 
endeared  to  me  by  the  holiest  of  all  ties ;  and  I  am  as  ready 


to  suffer,  if  need  he,  in  defence  of  their  rights,  as  in  defence 
of  the  rights  of  the  Southern  slave.  My  objections  to  them 
are  purely  conscientious.  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  and  in  Jesus,  as  a  divine  being,  who  is  to  be 
our  final  Judge.  I  was  born  and  nurtured  in  the  bosom  of 
the  church,  and  for  twelve  years  was  among  its  most  active 
members.  At  the  age  of  twenty-two,  1  left  the  allurements 
of  an  active  business  life,  on  which  I  had  just  entered  with 
fair  prospects,  and,  for  seven  successive  years,  cloistered  my- 
self within  the  walls  of  our  literary  institutions,  in  "a  course 
of  study  preparatory  to  the  ministry."  The  only  object  I  had 
in  view  in  changing  my  pursuits,  at  this  advanced  period  of 
life,  was  to  render  myself  more  useful  to  the  world,  by  ex- 
tending the  principles  of  Christianity,  as  taught  and  lived  out 
by  their  great  Author.  In  renouncing  the  priesthood  and  an 
organized  church,  and  laboring  for  their  overthrow,  my  object 
is  still  the  same.  I  entered  them  on  the  supposition  that 
they  were,  what  from  a  child  I  had  been  taught  to  regard 
them,  the  enclosures  of  Christ's  ministers  and  flock,  and  his 
chosen  instrumentalities  for  extending  his  kingdom  on  the 
earth.  I  have  left  them  from  an  unresistible  conviction,  in 
spite  of  my  early  prejudices,  that  they  are  a  "hold  of  every 
foul  spirit,"  and  the  devices  of  men  to  gain  influence  and 
power.  And,  in  rebuking  their  adherents  as  I  do,  my  only 
object  is  to  awaken  them,  if  possible,  to  a  sense  of  their  guilt 
and  moral  degradation,  and  bring  them  to  repentance,  and  a 
knowledge  of  the  true  God,  of  whom  most  of  them  are  now 
lamentably  ignorant,  as  their  lives  clearly  prove. 

The  remarks  which  I  made  at  your  Convention  were  of  a 
most  grave  and  startling  character.  They  strike  at  the  very 
foundation  of  all  our  popular  ecclesiastical  institutions,  and 
exhibit  them  to  the  world  as  the  apologists  and  supporters  of 
the  most  atrocious  system  of  oppression  and  wrong,  beneath 
which  humanity  has  ever  groaned.  They  reflect  on  the 
church  the  deepest  possible  odium,  by  disclosing  to  public 
view  the  chains  and  hand-cuffs,  the  whips  and  branding-irons, 
the  rifles  and  bloodhounds,  with  which  her  ministers  and 
deacons  bind  the  limbs  and  lacerate  the  flesh  of  innocent 
men  and  defenceless  women.  They  cast  upon  the  clergy  the 
same  dark  shade  which  Jesus  threw  over  the  ministers  of  his 
day,  when  he  tore  away  the  veil  beneath  which  they  had 
successfully  concealed  their  diabolical  schemes  of  personal 
aggrandizement  and  power,  and  denounced  them  before  all 
the  people,  as  a  "den  of  thieves,"  as  "fools  and  blind," 
"  whited  sepulchres,"  "  blind  guides,  which  strain  at  a  gnat, 
and  swallow  a  camel,"  "hypocrites,  who  devour  widows' 


6 

houses,  and  for  a  pretence  make  long  prayers,"  "  liars,"  "adul- 
terers," "  serpents,"  "  a  generation  of  vipers,"  who  could  not 
"escape  the  damnation  of  hell."  But,  appalling  and  ominous 
as  they  were,  1  am  not  aware  that  I  gave  the  parties  accused, 
or  their  mobocratic  friends,  any  just  cause  of  complaint. 
They  were  all  spoken  in  public,  in  a  free  meeting,  where  all 
who  dissented  from  me  were  not  only  invited,  but  warmly 
urged,  to  reply.  I  was  an  entire  stranger  among  you,  with 
nothing  but  the  naked  truth  and  a  few  sympathizing  friends 
to  sustain  me,  while  the  whole  weight  of  popular  sentiment 
was  in  their  favor.  Was  the  controversy  unequal  on  their 
part  ?  Were  they  afraid  to  meet  me  with  the  same  honor- 
able weapons  which  I  had  chosen  ?  Conscious  innocence 
seldom  consents  to  tarnish  its  character  by  a  dishonorable 
defence.  Had  my  charges  been  unfounded,  a  refutation  of 
them,  under  the  circumstances,  would  have  been  most  easy 
and  triumphant.  My  opponents,  had  they  been  innocent, 
could  have  acquitted  themselves  honorably,  and  overwhelmed 
their  accuser  in  deep  disgrace,  without  the  necessity  of  re- 
sorting to  those  arguments  which  appeal  only  to  one's  fears 
of  personal  harm,  and  which  are  certain  to  react  upon  their 
authors,  when  the  threatened  danger  subsides. 

But  if  all  that  I  have  alleged  against  them  be  true,  it  was 
obviously  my  right,  nay,  my  imperative  duty,  to  make  the 
disclosures  which  I  did,  even  though  it  might  be,  as  you  well 
know  it  was,  at  the  peril  of  my  life,  and  the  lives  of  my 
associates. 

In  exposing  the  deep  and  fathomless  abominations  of  those 
pious  thieves,  who  gain  their  livelihood  by  preaching  sermons 
and  stealing  babies,  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  yield  to  any  intimi- 
dations, however  imposing  the  source  from  which  they  come. 
The  right  of  speech  —  the  liberty  to  utter  our  own  convic- 
tious /reefy,  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  at  discretion,  un- 
awed  by  fear,  unembarrassed  by  force  —  is  the  gift  of  God  to 
every  member  of  the  family  of  man,  and  should  be  preserved 
inviolate;  and  for  one,  I  can  consent  to  surrender  it  to  no 
power  on  earth,  but  with  the  loss  of  life  itself.  Let  not  the 
petty  tyrants  of  our  laud,  in  church  or  state,  think  to  escape 
the  censures  which  their  crimes  deserve,  by  hedging  them- 
selves about  with  the  frightful  penalties  of  human  law,  or  the 
more  frightful  violence  of  a  drunken  and  murderous  mob. 
There  live  the  men  who  are  not  afraid  to  die,  even  though 
called  to  meet  their  fate  within  the  gloomy  walls  of  a  dismal 
prison,  with  no  kind  hand  to  wipe  the  cold  death-sweat  from 
their  sinking  brow ;  and  they  scorn  a  fetter  on  limb  or  spirit. 
They  know  their  rights,  and  know  how  to  defend  them,  or  to 


obtain  more  than  an  equivalent  for  their  loss,  in  the  rewards 
of  a  martyr  to  the  right.  While  life  remains,  they  will  speak, 
and  speak  freely,  though  it  be  in  "  A  Voice  from  the  Jail ; " 
nor  will  they  treat  the  crimes  and  vices  of  slave-breeding 
priests,  and  their  consecrated  abettors  of  the  North,  with  less 
severity  than  they  do  the  crimes  and  vices  of  other  marau- 
ders on  their  neighbors'  property  and  rights.  Nor  should  the 
friends  of  freedom  be  alarmed  at  the  consequences  of  this 
faithful  dealing  with  "spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places." 
The  mobs  which  it  creates  are  hut  the  violent  contortions  of 
the  patient,  as  the  deep  gashes  of  the  operator's  knife  severe 
the  infected  limb  from  his  sickly  and  emaciated  body. 

The  fact,  that  my  charges  against  the  religious  sects  of  our 
country  were  met  with  violence  and  outrage,  instead  of  sound 
arguments  and  invalidating  testimony,  is  strong  presumptive 
evidence  of  their  truth.  The  innocent  never  find  occasion  to 
resort  to  this  disgraceful  mode  of  defence.  If  our  clergy 
and  church  were  the  ministers  and  church  of  Christ,  would 
their  reputation  be  defended  by  drunken  and  murderous  mobs? 
Are  brickbats  and  rotten  eggs  the  weapons  of  truth  and  Chris- 
tianity ?  Did  Jesus  say  to  his  disciples,  "Blessed  are  ye  when 
the  mob  shall  speak  well  of  you,  and  shall  defend  you"?  The 
church,  slavery,  and  the  mob,  are  a  queer  trinity !  And  yet 
that  they  are  a  trinity  —  that  they  all  "  agree  in  one  " —  cannot 
be  denied.  Every  assault  which  we  have  made  on  the  bloody 
slave  system,  as  I  shall  hereafter  show,  has  been  promptly 
met  and  repelled  by  the  church,  which  is  herself  the  claimant 
of  several  hundred  thousand  slaves;  and  whenever  we  have 
attempted  to  expose  the  guilt  and  hypocrisy  of  the  church,  the 
mob  has  uniformly  been  first  and  foremost  in  her  defence. 
But  I  rest  not  on  presumptive  evidence,  however  strong  and 
conclusive,  to  sustain  my  allegations  against  the  American 
church  and  clergy.  The  proof  of  their  identity  with  slavery, 
and  of  their  consequent  deep  and  unparalleled  criminality,  is 
positive  and  overwhelming,  and  is  fully  adequate  to  sustain 
the  gravest  charges,  and  to  justify  the  most  denunciatory  lan- 
guage that  has  ever  fallen  from  the  lips  of  their  most  inveterate 
opponents. 

I  said  at  your  meeting,  among  other  things,  that  the  Ameri- 
can church  and  clergy,  as  a  body,  were  thieves,  adulterers, 
man-stealers, pirates,  and  murderers;  that  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church  was  more  corrupt  and  profligate  than  any  house 
of  ill-fame  in  the  city  of  New  York ;  that  the  Southern  min- 
isters of  that  body  were  desirous  of  perpetuating  slavery  for 
the  purpose  of  supplying  themselves  with  concubines  from 
among  its  hapless  victims  ;  and  that  many  of  our  clergymen 


8 

were  guilty  of  enormities  that  would  disgrace  an  Algerine 
pirate ! !  These  sentiments  called  forth  a  burst  of  holy  indig- 
nation from  the  pious  and  dutiful  advocates  of  the  church  and 
clergy,  which  overwhelmed  the  meeting  with  repeated  showers 
of  stones  and  rotten  eggs,  and  eventually  compelled  rne  to 
leave  your  island,  to  prevent  the  shedding  of  human  blood. 
But  whence  this  violence  and  personal  abuse,  not  only  of  the 
author  of  these  obnoxious  sentiments,  but  also  of  your  own 
unoffending  wives  and  daughters,  whose  faces  and  dresses, 

nwill  recollect,  were  covered  with  the  most  loathsome  filth  ? 
s  reported  of  the  ancient  Pharisees  and  their  adherents, 
that  they  stoned  Stephen  to  death  for  preaching  doctrines  at 
war  with  the  popular  religion  of  their  times,  and  charging 
them  with  the  murder  of  the  Son  of  God ;  but  their  suc- 
cessors of  the  modern  church,  it  would  seem,  have  discovered 
some  new  principle  in  theology,  by  which  it  is  made  their 
duty  not  only  to  stone  the  heretic  himself,  but  all  those  also 
who  may  at  any  time  be  found  listening  to  his  discourse  with- 
out a  permit  from  their  priest  Truly,  the  church  is  becoming 
"terrible  as  an  army  with  banners." 

This  violence  and  outrage  on  the  part  of  the  church  were, 
no  doubt,  committed  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  honor  of 
religion,  although  the  connection  between  rotten  eggs  and 
holiness  of  heart  is  not  very  obvious.  It  is,  I  suppose,  one  of 
the  mysteries  of  religion  which  laymen  cannot  understand 
without  the  aid  of  the  clergy  ;  and  1  therefore  suggest  that  the 
pulpit  make  it  a  subject  of  Sunday  discourse.  But  are  not 
the  charges  here  alleged  against  the  clergy  strictly  and  literally 
true  ?  I  maintain  that  they  are  true  to  the  very  letter  ;  that  the 
clergy  and  their  adherents  are  literally,  and  beyond  all  contro- 
versy, a  "  brotherhood  of  thieves  ; "  and,  in  support  of  this 
opinion,  I  submit  the  following  considerations :  — 

You  will  agree  with  me,  I  think,  that  slaveholding  involves 
the  commission  of  all  the  crimes  specified  in  my  first  charge, 
viz.,  theft,  adultery,  man  stealing,  piracy,  and  murder.  But 
should  you  have  any  doubts  on  this  subject,  they  will  be  easily 
removed  by  analyzing  this  atrocious  outrage  on  the  laws  of 
God,  and  the  rights  and  happiness  of  man,  and  examining 
separately  the  elements  of  which  it  is  composed.  Wesley, 
the  celebrated  founder  of  the  Methodists,  once  denounced  it 
as  the  "  sum  of  all  villanies."  Whether  it  be  the  sum  of  all 
villanies,  or  not,  I  will  not  here  express  an  opinion  ;  but  that 
it  is  the  sum  of  at  least  Jive,  and  those  by  no  means  the  least 
atrocious  in  the  catalogue  of  human  aberrations,  will  require 
but  a  small  tax  on  your  patience  to  prove. 

1.    Theft    To  steal,  is  to  take  tbat  which  belongs  to  an- 


9 

other,  without  his  consent.  Theft  and  robbery  are,  morally, 
the  same  act,  differing  only  in  form.  Both  are  included  under 
the  command,  "  Thou  shall  not  steal ; "  that  is,  thou  shalt 
not  take  thy  neighbor's  property.  Whoever,  therefore,  either 
secretly  or  by  force,  possesses  himself  of  the  property  of  an- 
other, is  a  thief!  Now,  no  proposition  is  plainer  than  that 
every  man  owns  his  own  industry.  He  who  tills  the  soil  has 
a  right  to  its  products,  and  cannot  be  deprived  of  them  but  by 
an  act  of  felony.  This  principle  furnishes  the  only  solid  basis 
for  the  right  of  private  or  individual  property;  and  he  who 
denies  it,  either  in  theory  or  practice,  denies  that  right  also. 
But  every  slaveholder  takes  the  entire  industry  of  his  slaves, 
from  infancy  to  gray  hairs ;  they  dig  the  soil,  but  he  receives 
its  products.  No  matter  how  kind  or  humane  the  master  may 
be,  —  he  lives  by  plunder.  He  is  emphatically  a  freebooter ; 
and,  as  such,  he  is  as  much  more  despicable  a  character  than 
the  common  horse-thiefj  as  his  depredations  are  more  ex- 
tensive. 

2.  Adultery.  This  crime  is  disregard  for  the  requisitions 
of  marriage.  The  conjugal  relation  has  its  foundation  deeply 
laid  in  man's  nature,  and  its  strict  observance  is  essential  to 
his  happiness.  Hence  Jesus  Christ  has  thrown  around  it  the 
sacred  sanction  of  his  written  law,  and  expressly  declared 
that  the  man  who  violates  it,  even  by  a  lustful  eye,  is  an  adul- 
terer. But  does  the  slaveholder  respect  this  sacred  relation  ? 
Is  he  cautious  never  to  tread  upon  forbidden  ground  ?  No ! 
His  very  position  makes  him  the  minister  of  unbridled  lust. 
By  converting  woman  into  a  commodity  to  be  bought  and 
sold,  and  used  by  her  claimant  as  his  avarice  or  lust  may 
dictate,  he  totally  annihilates  the  marriage  institution,  and 
transforms  the  wife  into  what  he  very  significantly  terms  a 
"  BREEDER,"  and  her  children  into  "  STOCK." 

This  change  in  woman's  condition,  from  a  free  moral  agent 
to  a  chattel,  places  her  domestic  relations  entirely  beyond  her 
own  control,  and  makes  her  a  mere  instrument  for  the  gratifi- 
cation of  another's  desires.  The  master  claims  her  body  as 
his  property,  and,  of  course,  employs  it  for  such  purposes  as 
best  suit  his  inclinations,  —  demanding  free  access  to  her  bed ; 
nor  can  she  resist  his  demands  but  at  the  peril  of  her  life. 
Thus  is  her  chastity  left  entirely  unprotected,  and  she  is  made 
the  lawful  prey  of  every  pale-faced  libertine  who  may  choose 
to  prostitute  her !  To  place  woman  in  this  situation,  or  to 
retain  her  in  it  when  placed  there  by  another,  is  the  highest 
insult  that  any  one  could  possibly  offer  to  the  dignity  and 
purity  of  her  nature ;  and  the  wretch  who  is  guilty  of  it 
deserves  an  epithet  compared  with  which  adultery  is  spotless 


10 

innocence.  Rape  is  his  crime  !  death  his  desert,  —  if  death 
be  ever  due  to  criminals!  Am  I  too  severe  ?  Let  the  offence 
be  done  to  a  sister  or  daughter  of  yours ;  nay,  let  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Witherspoon,  or  some  other  ordained  miscreant  from  the 
South,  lay  his  vile  hands  on  your  own  bosom  companion,  and 
do  to  her  what  he  has  done  to  the  companion  of  another, — 
and  what  Prof  Stuart  and  Dr.  Fisk  say  he  may  do,  "  without 
violating  the  Christian  faith," — and  I  fear  not  your  reply. 
None  but  a  moral  monster  ever  consented  to  the  enslavement 
of  his  own  daughter,  and  none  but  fiends  incarnate  ever  en- 
slaved the  daughter  of  another.  Indeed,  I  think  the  demons 
in  hell  would  be  ashamed  to  do  to  their  fellow-demons  what 
many  of  our  clergy  do  to  their  own  church  members. 

3.  Man-stealing.     What  is  it  to  steal  a  man  ?    Is  it  not  to 
claim  him  as  your  property  ?  —  to  call  him  yours?   God  has 
given  to  every  man  an  inalienable  right  to  himself,  —  a  right 
of  which  no  conceivable  circumstance  of  birth,  or  forms  of 
law,  can  divest  him  ;  and  he  who  interferes  with  the  free  and 
unrestricted  exercise  of  that  right,  who,  not  content  with  the 
proprietorship  of  his  own  body,  claims  the  body  of  his  neigh- 
bor, is  a  man-stealer.    This  truth  is  self-evident.    Every  man, 
idiots  and  the  insane  only  excepted,  knows  that  he  has  no 
possible  right  to  another's  body;  and  he  who  persists,  for  a 
moment,  in  claiming  it,  incurs  the  guilt  of  man-stealing.     The 
plea  of  the  slave-claimant,  that  he  has  bought,  or  inherited,  his 
slaves,  is  of  no  avail.     What  right  had  he,  I  ask,  to  purchase, 
or  to  inherit,  his  neighbors  ?     The  purchase,  or  the  inherit- 
ance of  them  as  a  legacy,  was  itself  a  crime  of  no  less  enor- 
mity than  the  original  act  of  kidnapping.     But  every  slave- 
holder, whatever  his  profession  or  standing  in  society  may  be, 
lays  his  felonious  hands  on  the  body  and  soul  of  his  equal 
brother,  robs  him  of  himself,  converts  him  into  an  article  of 
merchandise,  and  leaves  him  a  mere  chattel  personal  in  the 
hands  of  his  claimants.     Hence  he  is  a  kidnapper,  or  man- 
thief. 

4.  Piracy.     The  American  people,  by  an  act  of  solemn 
legislation,  have  declared  the  enslaving  of  human  beings  on 
the  coast  of  Africa  to  be  piracy,  and  have  affixed  to  this  crime 
the  penalty  of  death.     And  can   the  same  act  be  piracy  in 
Africa,  and  not  be  piracy  in  America?    Does  crime  change 
its  character  by  changing  longitude  ?     Is  killing,  with  malice 
aforethought,  no  murder,  where  there  is  no  human  enactment 
against  it?    Or  can  it  be  less  piratical  and  Heaven-daring  to 
enslave  our  own  native   countrymen,   than  to   enslave   the 
heathen  sons  of  a  foreign  and  barbarous  realm  ?     If  there  be 
any  difference  in  the  two  crimes,  the  odds  is  in  favor  of  the 


11 

foreign  enslaver.  Slaveholding  loses  none  of  its  enormity  by 
a  voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  nor  by  baptism  into  the  Chris- 
tian name.  It  is  piracy  in  Africa ;  it  is  piracy  in  America ; 
it  is  piracy  the  wide  world  over ;  and  the  American  slave- 
holder, though  he  possess  all  the  sanctity  of  the  ancient 
Pharisees,  and  make  prayers  as  numerous  and  long,  is  a  pirate 
still ;  a  base,  profligate  adulterer,  and  wicked  contemner  of 
the  holy  institution  of  marriage ;  identical  in  moral  character 
with  the  African  slave-trader,  and  guilty  of  a  crime  which,  if 
committed  on  a  foreign  coast,  he  must  expiate  on  the  gallows. 

5.  Murder.  Murder  is  an  act  of  the  mind,  and  not  of  the 
hand.  "Whosoever  hateth  his  brother 'is  a  murderer."  A 
man  may  kill,  —  that  is,  his  hand  may  inflict  a  mortal  blow, — 
without  committing  murder.  On  the  other  hand,  he  may 
commit  murder  without  actually  taking  life.  The  intention 
constitutes  the  crime.  He  who,  with  a  pistol  at  my  breast, 
demands  my  pocket-book  or  my  life,  is  a  murderer,  whichever 
I  may  choose  to  part  with.  And  is  not  he  a  murderer,  who, 
with  the  same  deadly  weapon,  demands  the  surrender  of 
what  to  me  is  of  infinitely  more  value  than  my  pocket-book, 
nay,  than  life  itself — my  liberty  —  myself — my  wife  and 
children — all  that  I  possess  on  earth,  or  can  hope  for  in 
heaven  ?  But  this  is  the  crime  of  which  every  slaveholder  is 
guilty.  He  maintains  his  ascendency  over  his  victims,  ex- 
torting their  unrequited  labor,  and  sundering  the  dearest  ties 
of  kindred,  only  by  the  threat  of  extermination.  With  the 
slave,  as  every  intelligent  person  knows,  there  is  no  alterna- 
tive. It  is  submission  or  death,  or,  more  frequently,  pro- 
tracted torture  more  horrible  than  death.  Indeed,  the  South 
never  sleeps,  but  on  dirks,  and  pistols,  and  bowie  knives, 
with  a  troop  of  blood-hounds  standing  sentry  at  every  door! 
What,  I  ask,  means  this  splendid  enginery  of  death,  which 
gilds  the  palace  of  the  tyrant  master?  It  tells  the  story  of 
his  guilt.  The  burnished  steel  which  waits  beneath*  his 
slumbering  pillow,  to  drink  the  life-blood  of  outraged  inno- 
cence, brands  him  as  a  murderer.  It  proves,  beyond  dispute, 
that  the  submission  of  his  victims  is  the  only  reason  why  he 
has  not  already  shed  their  blood. 

By  this  brief  analysis  of  slavery,  we  stamp  upon  the  fore- 
head" of  the  slaveholder,  with  a  brand  deeper  than  that  which 
marks  the  victim  of  his  wrongs,  the  infamy  of  theft,  adultery, 
manstealing,  piracy,  and  murder.  We  demonstrate,  beyond 
the  possibility  of  doubt,  that  he  who  enslaves  another — that  is, 
robs  him  of  his  right  to  himself,  to  his  own  hands,  and  head, 
and  feet,  and  transforms  him  from  a  free  moral  agent  into  a 
mere  brute,  to  obey,  not  the  commands  of  God,  but  bis  claim- 


12 

ant  —  is  guilty  of  every  one  of  these  atrocious  crimes.  And  in 
doing  this,  we  have  only  demonstrated  what,  to  every  reflecting 
mind,  is  self-evident.  Every  man,  if  he  would  but  make  the 
case  of  the  slave  his  own,  would  feel  in  his  inmost  soul  the 
truth  and  justice  of  this  charge.  But  these  are  the  crimes 
which  J  have  alleged  against  the  American  church  and  clergy. 
Hence,  to  sustain  my  charge  against  them,  it  only  remains  Tor 
me  to  show  that  they  are  slaveholders.  That  they  are  slave- 
holders —  party  to  a  conspiracy  against  the  liberty  of  more 
than  two  millions  of  our  countrymen,  and,  as  such,  are  guilty 
of  the  crimes  of  which  they  stand  accused  —  I  affirm,  and 
will  now  proceed  to  prove. 

It  may  be  necessary  for  me  first,  however,  to  show  what 
constitutes  slaveholding,  as  there  seems  to  be  no  little  con- 
fusion in  the  minds  of  many  on  this  point.  And  here  let  me 
say,  the  word  itself,  if  analyzed,  will  give  an  accurate  de- 
scription of  the  act.  It  is  to  hold  one  in  slavery  —  to  keep 
him  in  the  condition  of  a  chattel.  But  slaveholding,  in  all 
cases,  is  necessarily  a  social  crime.  A  man  may  commit 
theft  or  murder  alone,  but  no  single  individual  can  ever 
enslave  another.  It  is  only  when  several  persons  associate 
together,  and  combine  their  influence  against  the  liberty  of 
an  individual,  that  he  can  be  deprived  6f  his  freedom,  and 
reduced  to  slavery.  Hence  connection  with  an  association, 
any  part  of  whose  object  is  to  hold  men  in  slavery,  constitutes 
one  a  slaveholder.  Nor  is  the  nature  or  criminality  of  his 
offence  altered  or  affected  by  the  number  of  persons  con- 
nected with  him  in  such  an  association.  If  a  million  of 
people  conspire  together  to  enslave  a  solitary  individual,  each 
of  them  is  a  slaveholder,  and  no  less  guilty  than  if  he  were 
alone  in  the  crime.  It  is  no  palliation  of  his  offence  to  say, 
that  he  is  opposed  to  slavery.  The  better  feelings  of  every 
slaveholder  are  opposed  to  slavery.  But  if  he  be  opposed  to 
it,  why,  1  ask,  is  he  concerned  in  it  ?  Why  does  he  coun- 
tenance, aid,  or  abet,  the  infernal  system  ?  The  fact  of  his 
opposition  to  it,  in  feeling,  instead  of  mitigating  his  guilt,  only 
enhances  it,  since  it  proves,  conclusively,  that  he  is  not  un- 
conscious of  the  wrong  he  is  doing. 

It  is  a  common  but  mistaken  opinion,  that,  to  constitute  one 
a  slaveholder,  he  must  be  the  claimant  of  slaves.  That  title 
belongs  alike  to  the  slave-claimant,  and  all  those  who,  by 
their  countenance  or  otherwise,  lend  their  influence  to  sup- 
port the  slave  system.  If  I  aid  or  countenance  another  in 
stealing,  I  am  a  thief,  though  he  receive  all  the  booty.  The 
Knapps,  it  will  be  recollected,  were  hung  as  the  murderers 
of  Mr.  White,  though  Crowninshield  gave  the  fatal  blow,  and 


13 

that,  too,  while  they  were  at  a  distance  from  the  bloody  scene. 
It  matters  little  who  does  the  mastery,  and  puts  on  the  drag- 
chain  and  hand-cuff's,  whether  it  be  James  B.  Gray,  the  Bos- 
ton Police,  Judge  Story,  or  some  distinguished  Doctor  of 
Divinity  of  the  South ;  the  guilt  of  the  transaction  consists 
in  authorizing  or  allowing  it  to  be  done.  Hence  all  who, 
through  their  political  or  ecclesiastical  connections,  aid  or 
countenance  the  master  in  his  work  of  death,  are  slavehold- 
ers, and,  as  such,  are  stained  with  all  the  moral  turpitude 
which  attaches  to  the  man  who,  by  their  sanction,  wields  the 
bloody  lash  over  the  heads  of  his  trembling  victims,  and 
buries  it  deep  in  their  quivering  flesh.  Nay,  the  human 
hounds  which  guard  the  plantation,  ever  eager  to  bark  on  the 
track  of  the  flying  fugitive,  are  objects  of  deeper  indignation 
and  abhorrence  than  even  its  lordly  proprietor. 

How  stands  this  matter,  then,  in  regard  to  the  American 
church  and  clergy  ?  Is  it  true  of  them  that  they  are  either 
claimants  of  slaves  or  watch-dogs  of  the  plantation  ?  Such, 
1  regret  to  say,  is  the  shameful  and  humiliating  fact  It  is 
undeniably  true,  that,  with  comparatively  few  exceptions, 
they  occupy  one  of  these  two  positions  in  relation  to  the 
"  peculiar  institution."  Thousands  of  the  ministers,  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  the  members  of  the  different  sects,  are  actually 
claimants  of  slaves.  They  buy  and  sell,  mortgage  and  lease, 
their  own  "  brethren  in  the  Lord,"  not  unfrequently  breaking 
up  families,  and  scattering  their  bleeding  fragments  over  all 
the  land,  never  to  be  gathered  again  till  the  archangel's  trump 
shall  wake  their  slumbering  ashes  into  life.  In  confirmation 
of  this  statement,  if  proof  be  asked,  1  submit  the  following 
testimony  of  Rev.  Samuel  Heuston,  late  of  Utica,  N.  Y.,  an 
accredited  minister  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  who 
formerly  resided  at  the  South.  In  reply  to  several  questions 
by  Rev.  George  Storrs,  of  the  same  church,  Mr.  H.  says,  — 

"I  know  that  members  of  the  M.  E.  church  sell  slaves  at  auc- 
tion, to  the  highest  bidder ;  and  it  is  not  considered  a  disciplinary 
offence.  I  know  of  Methodist  preachers  buying  slaves  with  no 
apparent  design  to  better  their  condition,  but  evidently  for  the 
sake  of  gain. 

"  I  should  think  nearly  one  half,  at  least,  of  the  ministers  of 
our  church  hold  slaves  and  trade  in  them;  and  nearly  all  the 
members,  who  are  able  to  own  slaves,  not  only  hold  them,  but  buy 
and  sell  them. 

"  I  know  an  official  member  of  the  M.  E.  church,  Col. , 

that  bought  in  one  purchase  about  fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
slaves. 

"  Esq. ,  of ,  S.  C.,  an  official  member  of  the  M.  E. 

church,  who  made  it  a  business  to  buy  and  sell  slaves  in  lots  to 


14 

suit  the  purchasers,  has  become  rich  by  his  speculation  in  them, 
and  still  continues  his  trade  in  human  beings  —  trading  not  only 
for  himself,  but  as  an  agent  for  others.  His  house  is  head-quarters 
for  Methodists  —  a  home  for  the  preachers.  He  is  a  chief  man  in 
the  church;  very  benevolent." 

The  opinion  of  Mr.  Heuston  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the 
Methodists  are  engaged  in  breeding  and  trafficking  in  slaves, 
is  corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  Rev.  James  Sinylie,  a 
Presbyterian  clergyman  of  Mississippi,  who  affirms  the  same 
thing  of  all  the  other  large  denominations.  In  a  pamphlet 
which  he  published  in  defence  of  slavery,  in  1838,  I  think  it 
was,  we  find  the  following  passage :  — 

"  If  slavery  be  a  sin,  and  advertising  and  apprehending  slaves, 
with  a  view  to  restore  them  to  their  masters,  is  a  direct  violation 
of  the  divine  law,  and  if  the  buying,  selling,  or  holding  a  slave, 
FOR  THE  SAKE  OF  GAIN,  is  a  heinous  sin  and  scandal,  then,  verily, 

THREE  FOURTHS  OF  ALL  THE  EPISCOPALIANS,  METHODISTS,  BAP- 
TISTS, and  PRESBYTERIANS,  in  ELEVEN  STATES  OF  THE  UNION,  are 
of  the  devil.  They  '  hold,'  if  they  do  not  buy  and  sell  slaves,  and, 
•with  few  exceptions,  they  hesitate  not  to  'to  apprehend  and  restore  ' 
runaway  slaves  when  in  their  power." 

The  statements  of  these  individuals  apply  to  the  South 
only.  It  is  only  in  that  portion  of  the  country  that  Mr.  S. 
says,  and  says  truly,  that  if  slavery  be  a  sin,  (and  no  man 
doubts  that  it  is,)  three  fourths  of  all  the  Episcopalians,  Meth- 
odists, Baptists,  and  Presbyterians,  are  of  the  devil.  But  as 
the  Northern  branch  of  the  church  is  much  larger  than  the 
Southern,  a  large  majority  of  the  ministers  and  church  mem- 
bers of  the  whole  country  hold  no  property  in  slaves.  But 
while  it  is  true  that  they  are  not  claimants  of  slaves,  it  is 
equally  true  that  they  are  the  apologists  and  supporters  of 
the  system.  For  the  sake  of  union  with  the  South,  the 
Northern  church  and  clergy,  in  concert  with  non-professors, 
have  made  their  respective  states  hunting-grounds  for  South- 
ern kidnappers,  and  themselves  the  hounds.  They  have 
covenanted  with  the  South  that  whenever  one  of  her  slaves 
shall  make  his  escape  to  Massachusetts,  Judge  Story,  and  the 
United  States  marshal,  with  his  posse  comitatus,  shall  dog 
him  down,  secure  his  person,  and  in  due  time  deliver  him  up 
to  the  original  kidnapper.  Nor  is  this  all.  They  have  con- 
sented to  become  the  body-guard  of  the  slave-master,  and 
have  pledged  themselves  to  protect  him  against  every  attempt 
of  his  slaves  to  throw  oft'  their  chains. 

It  is  to  this  union,  and  pledge  of  protection  from  the  North, 
that  the  slave  system  owes  its  perpetuity  to  the  present  time. 
Such,  at  least, 'is  the  opinion  of  the  slave-claimants  them- 


15 

selves.  Hence  they  shriek  out  in  dismay  at  the  first  propo- 
sition of  the  abolitionists  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  leave 
them  alone  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  peculiar  institutions. 
Such,  too,  is  the  opinion  of  every  man  of  sense  who  knows 
any  thing  of  the  past  history  or  present  condition  of  our  slave 
population.  The  North,  as  he  very  well  knows,  are  emphat- 
ically the  slave-holders.  They  are  the  soldiers  who  level  the 
musket,  as  the  South  gives  the  word  of  command.  Indeed,  to 
satisfy  himself  of  this,  the  humblest  and  most  uninformed  of 
our  citizens  needs  but  a  little  reflection  on  the  facts  already 
within  his  knowledge.  Who  does  not  know  that  in  this 
country  are  two  and  a  half  millions  of  people  who  are 
doomed  to  a  state  of  "  bondage,  one  hour  of  which  is  fraught 
with  more  misery  than  ages  of  that,  which  our  fathers  rose  in 
rebellion  to  oppose?"  Confederated  with  them  are  not  Jess 
than  half  a  million  of  abolitionists,  and  free  people  of  color, 
who  believe  in  the  right  arid  duty  of  self-defence,  and  who 
are  ready  to  join  in  every  feasible  measure  to  secure  their 
liberty.  Now,  I  ask,  by  whose  agency  this  vast  people  are 
kept  in  their  present  horrible  condition.  To  say  that  they 
are  held  by  their  claimants,  would  be  to  talk  like  one  bereft 
of  his  reason.  They  are  but  a  mere  handful  of  men,  at  most, 
less  than  three  hundred  thousand,  or,  on  an  average,  about 
one  to  every  ten  slaves.  From  this  vast  inequality  in  numbers, 
it  is  certain  that  their  masters  are  not  alone  concerned  in  their 
enslavement.  To  keep  a  million  of  robust,  athletic  men  and 
women  in  a  state  of  abject  servitude,  requires  a  force  far  be- 
yond what  they  are  competent  to  furnish.  Whence,  then, 
comes  that  force  ?  Who  are  the  allies  and  abettors  of  these 
horrible  tyrants,  who  live  upon  the  blighted  hopes  of  pros- 
trate millions?  Are  they  the  crowned  despots  of  the  old 
world?  Have  Algiers  and  Constantinople  disgorged  them- 
selves, and  sent  forth  swarms  of  troops  to  form  a  living, 
impregnable  bulwark  around  these  execrable  monsters,  and 
Khield  them  from  the  righteous  indignation  of  outraged  hu- 
manity? The  South  herself  shall  answer  this  question.  She 
shall  speak,  and  disclose  her  accomplices  in  this  work  of 
death. 

Says  the  editor  of  the  Maryville  (Tenn.)  Intelligencer,  in  an 
article  on  the  character  and  condition  of  the  slave  popu- 
lation,— 

"  We  of  the  South  are  emphatically  surrounded  by  a  dangerous 
class  of  beings,  —  degraded  stupid  savages,  —  who,  if  they  could  but 
once  entertain  the  idea  that  immediate  and  unconditional  death 
would  not  be  their  portion,  would  react  the  St.  Domingo  tragedy. 
But  the  consciousness,  with  all  their  stupidity,  that  a  tenfold  force, 


16 

superior  in  discipline,  if  not  in  barbarity,  would  gather  from  the 
four  corners  of  the  United  States,  and  slaughter  them,  keeps  them 
in  subjection.  But  to  the  non-slaveholding  states,  particularly,  we 
are  indebted  for  a  permanent  safe-guard  against  insurrection. 
Without  their  assistance,  the  white  population  of  the  South  would 
be  too  weak  to  quiet  that  innate  desire  for  liberty  which  is  ever 
ready  to  act  itself  out  with  every  rational  creature." 

In  the  debate  in  Congress  on  the  resolution  to  censure  John 
Quincy  Adams  for  presenting  a  petition  for  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union,  Mr.  Underwood,  of  Kentucky,  made  the  following 
very  just  confession  —  a  confession  which  concedes  all  that 
I  have  ever  claimed  in  regard  to  the  guilt  of  the  North,  and 
which  the  church  and  clergy  must  disprove,  or  admit  all  that 
I  have  alleged  against  them.  In  speaking  of  the  effect  of  a 
repeal  of  the  Union  on  slavery,  Mr.  U.  said,  — 

"  They  (the  South)  were  the  weaker  portion,  were  in  the  minor- 
ity. The  North  could  do  what  they  pleased  with  them ;  they  could 
adopt  their  own  measures.  All  he  asked  was,  that  they  would  let 
the  South  know  what  those  measures  were.  One  thing  he  knew 
well  —  that  the  state  which  he  in  part  represented,  had  perhaps  a 
deeper  interest  in  this  subject  than  any  other,  except  Maryland 
and  a  small  portion  of  Virginia.  And  why  ?  Because  he  knew 
that  to  dissolve  the  Union,  and  separate  the  different  states  com- 
posing this  confederacy,  —  making  the  Ohio  River,  and  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line,  the  boundary  line,  —  he  knew  as  soon  as  that  was 
done,  slavery  was  done  in  Kentucky,  Maryland,  and  a  large  por- 
tion of  Virginia,  and  it  would  extend  to  all  the  states  south  of  this 
line.  The  dissolution  of  the  Union  was  the  dissolution  of  slavery. 
It  had  been  the  common  practice  for  Southern  men  to  get  up  on 
this  floor,  and  say,  'Touch  this  subject,  and  we  will  dissolve 
this  Union  as  a  remedy.'  Their  remedy  was  the  destruction  of 
the  thing  which  they  wished  to  save,  and  any  sensible  man  could 
see  it.  If  the  Union  were  dissolved  into  two  parts,  the  slave 
would  cross  the  line,  and  then  turn  round  and  curse  his  master 
from  the  other  shore." 

This  confession  of  Mr.  Underwood,  as  to  the  entire  depend- 
ence of  the  slave-masters  on  the  citizens  of  the  nominally  free 
states  to  guard  their  plantations,  and  secure  them  against 
desertion,  is  substantially  confirmed  by  Thomas  D.  Arnold,  of 
Tennessee,  who,  in  a  speech  on  the  same  subject,  assures  us 
that  they  are  equally  dependent  on  the  North  for  personal 
protection  against  their  slaves.  In  assigning  his  reasons  for 
adhering  to  the  Union,  Mr.  Arnold  makes  use  of  the  follow- 
ing remarkable  language :  — 

"  The  free  states  had  now  a  majority  of  44  in  that  house.  Un- 
der the  new  census,  they  would  have  53.  The  cause  of  the 
slaveholding  states  was  getting  weaker  and  weaker,  and  what 


17 

were  they  to  do  ?  He  would  ask  his  Southern  friends  what  the 
South  had  to  rely  on,  if  the  Union  were  dissolved  ?  Suppose  the 
dissolution  could  be  peaceably  effected,  (if  that  did  not  involve  a 
contradiction  in  terms,)  what  had  the  South  to  depend  upon?  Ml 
tite  crowned  heads  were  against  her.  A  million  of  slaves  were 
ready  to  rise  and  strike  for  freedom,  at  the  first  tap  of  the  drum. 
They  were  cut  loose  from  their  friends  at  the  North,  (friends 
that  ought  to  be,  and  without  them  the  South  had  no  friends,) 
tchither  icere  th-ey  to  look  for  protection?  How  were  they  to  sus- 
tain an  assault  from  England,  or  France,  with  that  cancer  at  their 
vitals?  The  more  the  South  reflected,  the  more  clearly  she  must 
see  that  she  had  a  deep  and  vital  interest  in  maintaining  the 
Union." 

Testimony,  to  the  same  effect,  might  be  multiplied  to  an 
indefinite  extent.  But  more  is  unnecessary.  Every  person, 
acquainted  with  the  politics  of  the  country,  knows  that  slavery 
is  incorporated  into  the  constitution  of  our  government,  and 
is  made  a  part  of  its  settled  policy.  1  have  already  said  that 
slaveholding  was,  necessarily,  a  social  crime ;  that  it  was  only 
by  means  of  a  social  organization,  by  which  the  power  of  a 
whole  community  could  be  combined  and  concentrated  on  a 
given  point,  at  a  given  time,  that  the  liberty  of  an  individual 
could  be  crushed.  The  federal  and  state  governments,  linked 
together  as  they  now  are,  constitute  such  an  organization. 
The  protection  of  the  slave  system  was  one  of  the  objects  for 
which  the  Union  was  formed.  By  the  terms  of  the  federal 
compact,  the  citizens  of  every  state  in  the  Union  are  required 
and  pledged  to  protect  the  slave-claimants,  in  each  of  the 
states  where  slavery  exists,  against  any  attempt  of  their  slaves 
to  regain  their  liberty  by  a  resort  to  arms.  The  army,  the 
navy,  and  the  militia,  of  the  whole  country,  are  placed  at  the 
bidding  of  the  slave  power ;  and  every  officer  in  them,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  is  put  under  oath  to  fight  the  battles 
of  slavery  at  the  master's  call.  Already  have  the  United 
States'  troops  been  twice  employed  (at  South  Hampton,  Va., 
and  at  Wilmington,  N.  C.,)to  suppress  insurrection  among  the 
slaves ;  and  a  call  is  now  made  upon  the  country  for  a  large 
increase  of  the  navy,  for  the  better  protection  of  the  "pecu- 
liar institution."  The  Florida  \var  also  furnishes  another  and 
more  recent  instance  in  which  the  nation,  as  such,  has  un- 
sheathed the  sword  in  defence  of  slavery.  The  sole  object 
of  that  war,  which  has  cost  the  country  more  than  7000  lives, 
and  exhausted  its  treasury  of  $40,000,000,  be  it  remembered, 
was  the  recapture  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  to  prevent  further 
escapes.  And  the  same  mighty  influence  which  has  exter- 
minated the  poor  Indian  in  the  everglades  of  Florida  for 
making  his  rude  wigwam  a  refuge  and  home  for  the  panting 
2* 


18 

fugitive,  is  now  waiting  to  "  gather  in  tenfold  force  from  the 
four  corners  of  the  United  States,  and  slaughter  "  the  pining 
bondmen  of  the  South,  should  they  attempt  to  throw  off  their 
chains,  and  assert  their  right  to  liberty. 

The  guaranty  of  personal  security  against  their  slaves, 
given  by  the  North  to  the  slave-claimants,  is  the  very  life- 
blood  of  the  slave  system.  Divested  of  the  protection  of 
Northern  bayonets,  the  slave  power  could  not  sustain  itself 
a  single  hour,  as  the  South  herself  is  forced  to  admit.  "  Sup- 
pose the  Union  to  be  dissolved,  what  has  the  South  to  depend 
upon?  All  the  crowned  heads  are  against  her.  A  million 
of  slaves  are  ready  to  rise  and  strike  for  freedom  at  the  first 
tap  of  the  drum."  And  why,  I  ask,  do  they  not  now  rise  ? 
Not,  surely,  because,  in  a  country  like  ours,  such  a  step  would 
be  deemed  morally  wrong.  The  doctrine  taught  in  all  our 
pulpits,  and  received  by  the  church  universally,  is,  that  "  re- 
sistance to  tyrants  is  obedience  to  God."  Our  clergy  tell  us 
that  self-defence,  and  the  protection  of  our  families,  is  a  duty 
which  we  may  not  innocently  neglect,  while  they  denounce 
non-resistance  as  a  "  doctrine  of  devils."  Why,  then,  do  not 
the  slaves  assert  their  freedom,  and  meet  the  invaders  of  their 
rights  in  mortal  combat,  as  our  fathers  did?  Why  is  not 
Madison  Washington  George  Washington?  And  why  are 
not  Charles  Remond,  and  Frederic  Douglass,  and  Lundsford 
Lane,  the  Henrys,  and  Hancocks,  and  Adamses,  of  a  second 
American  revolution  ? 

But  one  answer  can  be  given  to  this  question,  and  that  is 
the  one  already  given  by  the  Maryville  Intelligencer.  The 
consciousness  that,  in  a  controversy  with  their  masters,  they 
must  meet  the  combined  forces,  military  and  naval,  of  the 
whole  country,  alone  deters  them  from  such  a  movement. 
It  is  not  the  lily-fingered  aristocracy  of  the  South  that  they 
fear,  as  the  South  herself  tells  us,  but  the  "  white  slaves"  of 
the  North,  who  have  basely  sold  themselves  for  scullions  to 
the  slave  power,  and  who  are  always  ready  to  do  the  bidding 
of  their  haughty  proprietors,  whatever  service  they  may  re- 
quire at  their  hands.  The  slaves  know  too  well,  that,  should 
they  unfurl  the  banner  of  freedom,  and  demand  the  recogni- 
tion of  their  liberty  and  rights  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet, 
the  Northern  pulpit,  aghast  with  holy  horror  at  the  incendiary 
measure,  would  raise  the  maddening  cry  of  insurrection  —  the 
Northern  church,  animated  by  a  kindred  spirit,  and  echoing 
the  infamous  libel,  would  pour  forth  her  sons  in  countless 
hordes,  and  a  mighty  avalanche  of  Northern  soldiery,  well 
disciplined  for  their  work  of  death  by  long  experience  in 
Northern  mobs,  would  rush  down  upon  them  from  our 


19 

Northern  hills  in  exterminating  wrath,  and  sweep  away,  in  its 
desolating  ruins,  the  last  vestige  of  their  present  "  forlorn 
hope  ! "  Do  I  misrepresent  the  church  and  clergy  ?  No ! 
You,  at  least,  know  that  this  would  be  but  to  redeem  their 
plighted  faith.  They  stand,  before  the  world  and  before  high 
Heaven,  sworn  to  protect  every  slave-breeder  in  the  land  in 
his  lawful  business  of  rearing  men  and  women  for  the  mar- 
ket ;  nor  have  they,  as  a  body,  ever  shown  any  symptoms  of 
an  intention  to  violate  the  requirements  of  their  oath.  They 
preach  and  practise  allegiance  to  a  government  which  is 
based  upon  the  bones  and  sinews,  and  cemented  with  the 
blood,  of  millions  of  their  countrymen,  and  hold  themselves 
in  readiness  to  execute  its  every  decree,  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet.  Thus,  emphatically,  are  they  the  holders  of  the 
slaves  —  the  bulwark  of  the  bloody  slave  system  —  and  as 
such,  at  their  hands,  if  there  be  any  truth  in  Christianity,  will 
God  require  the  blood  of  every  slave  in  our  land.  And,  for 
one,  so  long  as  they  continue  in  their  present  position,  I  deem 
it  the  duty  of  every  friend  of  humanity  to  brand  them  as  a 
brotherhood  of  thieves,  adulterers,  man-stealers,  pirates,  and 
murderers,  and  to  prove  to  the  world  that,  in  sustaining  the  slave 
system,  they  do  actually  commit  all  these  atrocious  crimes. 

The  Federal  Compact  contains  another  provision,  as  I  have 
already  intimated,  which,  in  its  operation,  is  no  less  fatal  to 
the  liberties  of  our  enslaved  countrymen  than  that  which  we 
have  just  considered  ;  and  one  which  implicates  every  friend 
and  supporter  of  the  Union  in  all  the  guilt  and  moral  turpi- 
tude of  slaveholding.  I  refer  to  that  article  of  the  Constitu- 
tion which  requires  the  surrender  of  fugitive  slaves.  If  the 
Northern  States  were  really  free,  the  slaves  would  forthwith 
escape  into  them,  and  slavery  would  soon  become  extinct  by 
emigration,  as  Mr.  Underwood  has  well  said.  But  what  is 
now  the  fact  ?  Is  there  liberty  for  the  slave  any  where  within 
the  borders  of  the  United  States  ?  When  he  steps  upon  the 
soil  of  Pennsylvania,  or  New  York,  or  Massachusetts,  do  his 
shackles  fall  ?  Can  he  stand  erect,  and  say,  "  1  am  free  "  ? 
No !  He  is  still  a  crouching  slave  —  still  clanks  his  chains, 
and  starts  affrighted  at  the  crack  of  the  driver's  whip.  Hotly 
pursued  by  the  human  hounds  which,  like  the  fabled  vulture 
of  Prometheus,  have  long  gorged  themselves  upon  his  vitals, 
he  reaches  forth  his  imploring  hands  to  the  professed  min- 
isters and  followers  of  the  meek  and  loving  Savior,  and, 
with  looks  that  would  draw  tears  from  adamant,  beseeches 
them  by  all  that  is  endearing  in  the  ties  of  our  common  na- 
ture, and  by  all  that  is  horrible  in  the  doom  of  a  recaptured 
slave,  to  save  him  from  the  fangs  of  these  terrible  monsters. 


20 

But  what  is  their  reply  ?  "  Go  back  " —  Shame,  shame  on  the 
church  !  —  "Go  back, and  wear  your  chains !  True,  '  all  men 
are  created  equal,  and  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness;'  and  God  said,  'Thou  shall  not  deliver  to 
his  master  the  servant  which  is  escaped  from  his  master 
unto  thee' — but  —  but  —  but  we  have  covenanted  with  the 
wretches  who  have  robbed  you  of  these  rights,  never  to  give 
you  shelter,  nor  protection  ;  but  to  return  you,  if  found  within 
our  borders,  again  into  their  power." 

This  is  no  picture  of  the  fancy,  as  thousands  of  our  unhap- 
py countrymen  would  testify  from  sad  experience,  if  they 
could  but  speak.  Indeed,  it  is  the  language  of  every  citizen 
of  the  North  who  holds  any  other  relation  to  the  Federal 
Compact  than  that  which  George  Washington  and  the  first 
American  Congress  held  to  the  colonial  edicts  of  George  III. ; 
for  that  instrument,  as  interpreted  by  the  Supreme  Court, 
pledges  all  who  assent  to  it  to  withhold  protection  from  every 
man  who  is  claimed  as  a  fugitive  slave,  and  allow  him  to  be 
dragged  back  into  bondage.  But  have  the  Northern  church 
and  clergy  ever  refused  to  fulfil  the  requisitions  of  this  in- 
famous compact  with  Southern  man-stealers  ?  Have  they 
trampled  its  provisions  under  their  feet,  and  indignantly  de- 
manded its  repeal  ?  Never !  On  the  contrary,  with  com- 
paratively few  exceptions,  they  have  ranged  themselves  in  one 
of  the  two  great  political  parties  which  have  long  vied  with 
each  other  in  their  support  of  slavery,  and  at  the  same  time 
have  waged  an  exterminating  warfare  against  every  move- 
ment in  favor  of  universal  freedom.  In  connection  with 
these  parties,  they  have  kidnapped  and  returned  into  slavery 
vast  numbers  of  those  who,  at  different  periods,  had  been  so 
fortunate  as  to  escape  from  the  power  of  their  masters  ;  and  in 
more  instances  than  one  have  they  indicted  and  imprisoned 
abolitionists  for  giving  them  succor.  Thus  have  the  church 
and  clergy  of  the  North  voluntarily  consented  to  become  the 
watch-dogs  of  the  plantation  ;  and  from  long  and  intimate 
acquaintance  with  their  fidelity  in  this  service,  I  have  no  hesi- 
tation in  recommending  them  to  their  southern  masters,  as 
worthy  candidates  for  the  honors  of  a  brass  collar.  And  if  I 
were  to  specify  cases  of  extraordinary  merit  in  this  regard,  I 
should  name  Chief  Justice  Shaw  and  Judge  Story,  and  the 
clergy  generally  of  the  city  of  Boston,  as  especially  entitled  to 
remembrance  by  James  B.  Gray,  for  their  prompt  and  cordial 
acquiescence  in  his  recent  claim  of  George  Larimer.  It 
would  be  but  an  act  of  justice  in  Mr.  G.  to  expend  a  part  of 
the  money  for  which  he  sold  George  in  collars,  inscribed  with 


21 

the  initials  of  his  own  name,  for  these  distinguished  kidnap- 
pers. Their  conduct  on  that  occasion,  as  I  can  testify  from 
personal  observation,  richly  entitles  them  to  some  such  lasting 
memento  of  their  loyalty  to  the  slave  power. 

There  is  another  view  of  this  subject,  which  presents  the 
guilt  of  the  Northern  church  and  clergy  in  a  still  more  glar- 
ing light.  It  is  this :  To  legalize  crime,  and  throw  around  it 
the  sanction  of  statutory  enactments,  is,  undeniably,  an  act  of 
much  greater  wickedness  than  to  perpetrate  it  after  it  has 
been  made  lawful.  Thus  the  members  of  a  legislative  body, 
which  should  enact  a  law  authorizing  theft  or  murder,  would 
more  deserve  the  penitentiary,  or  the  gallows,  than  the  man 
who  merely  steals,  or,  in  a  fit  of  anger,  takes  his  neighbor's 
life.  The  former  justify  crime,  and  make  it  honorable,  and 
thus  obliterate  all  distinction  between  virtue  and  vice ;  the 
latter  merely  commits  it,  when  legalized,  but  attempts  no  jus- 
tification of  his  offence.  But  the  religious  professions  of  the 
country  have  legalized  slavery  and  the  infernal  slave-trade,  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  the  Territory  of  Florida! 
They  have  made  their  national  capital  one  of  the  greatest 
slave-marts  on  the  globe ;  and  they  now  hold  in  slavery,  by 
direct  legislation,  more  than  thirty  thousand  human  beings, 
whom  they  have  sternly  refused  to  emancipate.  No  sect  can 
claim  exemption  from  this  charge.  In  whatever  else  they 
differ,  they  have  all  united,  without  exception,  by  the  almost 
unanimous  voice  of  their  members,  in  opposing  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  those  places  where  they  have  the  power  to 
emancipate,  and  have  declared  to  the  world,  by  their  vote, 
(the  most  effective  way  in  which  they  could  speak  on  the  sub- 
ject,) that  it  was  their  sovereign  will  and  pleasure  that  the 
traffic  in  human  beings,  which  they  have  branded  as  piracy  on 
the  coast  of  Africa,  should  be  lawful  and  honorable  com- 
merce in  the  United  States  ;  and  that  the  capital  of  this  land 
of  boasted  freedom  should  be  the  Guinea  Coast  of  America. 
Not  a  mother  has  been  robbed  of  her  babe  within  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  not  a  solitary  woman  has  been  sold  there, 
without  the  legal  sanction  of  more  than  seven  eighths  of 
every  religious  sect  of  the  North.  Even  the  Free-Will  Bap- 
tists and  the  Quakers,  with  all  their  professed  abhorrence  of 
slavery,  and  their  numerous  public  testimonies  against  it,  in 
consideration  of  the  paltry  sum  of  four  hundred  dollars  paid 
into  their  national  treasury,  license  the  auctioneer  in  human 
flesh  in  the  city  of  Washington.  I  charge  this  offence  upon 
these  denominations,  because  the  immediate  agents  in  grant- 
ing these  licenses  are  men  of  their  own  choice,  and  men,  too, 
who  were  selected  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  they 


22 

were  in  favor  of  legalizing  the  slave-trade,  and,  if  elected  to 
office,  would  license  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  The 
abolitionists  have  long  and  earnestly  besought  the  pretended 
ministers  and  followers  of  Christ,  of  the  different  sects,  to 
elect  men  to  office  who  would  abolish  all  legal  enactments  in 
favor  of  slavery,  wherever  they  had  the  power  to  do  it ;  but 
their  entreaties  have  been  totally  disregarded,  and  themselves 
treated  with  the  most  profound  contempt 

The  nature  and  enormities  of  the  domestic  slave-trade 
which  is  now  carried  on  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale,  under  the  legal  sanction  of  nearly  the  entire 
body  of  the  church  and  clergy,  may  be  seen  in  the  following 
eloquent  and  just  description  of  it,  from  a  Southern  pen. 
The  language  is  severe,  but  it  is  the  severity  of  truth.  The 
only  fault  1  find  with  it  is,  that  its  heaviest  strokes  are  not 
aimed  at  those  who  have  thrown  the  shield  of  government 
around  this  infernal  traffic,  and  made  it  lawful  and  honorable 
commerce.  I  copy  it. 

[From  the  Millennial  Trumpeter,  Tenn.] 

"  Droves  of  negroes,  chained  together  in  dozens  and  scores,  and 
hand-cuffed,  have  been  driven  through  our  country  in  numbers  far 
surpassing  any  previous  year.  And  these  vile  slave-drivers  and 
dealers  are  swarming  like  buzzards  round  a  carrion,  throughout  this 
country.  You  cannot  pass  a  few  miles  in  the  great  roads  without 
having  every  feeling  of  humanity  insulted  and  lacerated  by  this 
spectacle.  Nor  can  you  go  into  any  county,  or  any  neighborhood, 
scarcely,  without  seeing  or  hearing  of  some  of  those  despicable 
creatures,  called  negro-drivers. 

"WHO  is  A  NEGRO-DRIVER?  One  whose  eyes  dwell  with  de- 
light on  lacerated  bodies  of  helpless  men,  women,  and  children  ; 
wnose  soul  feels  diabolical  raptures  at  the  chains,  and  hand-cuffs, 
and  cart-whips  for  inflicting  tortures  on  weeping  mothers  torn 
from  helpless  babes,  and  on  husbands  and  wives  torn  asunder  for- 
ever. Who  is  a  negro- d ri  ver  ?  An  execrable  demon,  who  is  only 
prevented  by  want  of  power,  fellow-citizens,  from  driving  your 
wives,  and  sons,  and  daughters,  in  chains  and  hand-cuffs,  with  the 
blood-stained  cart- whip,  to  market.  Yea,  his  hardened  heart  would 
make  but  little  difference,  whether  he  made  his  ill-gotten  gain  by 
selling  them  to  a  merciless  cotton  or  sugar  grower,  or  by  sending 
them  directly  to  the  flames  of  hell.  Is  your  insulted  humanity,  ye 
sons  of  Tennessee,  your  insulted  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  your 
abused  conviction  of  the  rights  of  man,  satisfied  by  saying  the 
tears,  and  groans,  and  blood,  of  these  human  droves  are  not  the 
tears,  and  groans,  and  blood,  of  our  wives,  children,  brothers,  and 
fathers  ;  or  these  '  blood-snuffing  vultures  '  of  hell  should  not  set 
their  polluted  tread  on  our  soil  with  impunity  ?  Their  lives  should 
atone  for  their  audacity.  And  is  the  fountain  of  your  sympathies 


23 

dried  up  for  the  poor  oppressed  African,  merely  because  he  is  help- 
less  and  defenceless  ?  Is  the  hand  of  efficient  aid  drawn  back, 
merely  because  the  enchained,  bleeding  victim  cannot  help  him- 
self? Is  not  the  African  thy  brother?  Is  he  not  a  man,  with  all 
the  sympathies  and  sensibilities  of  our  nature  ?  Was  he  not  made 
in  the  image  of  God  ?  Did  not  Christ  die  to  redeem  him  ?  And 
shall  we  suffer  these  miscreant  fiends  to  drive  our  fellow-men  in 
chains  before  our  eyes,  as  brutes  are  driven  to  market. 

"  The  laws,  you  say,  protect  these  ruffians  in  their  nefarious 
traffic.  Yea,  the  laws  are  often  made  by  wretches  whose  charac- 
ters are  frequently  afac  simile  of  these  negro-drivers,  whose  moral 
picture  would  darken  the  black  canvass  of  the  pit.  There  are,  at 
this  very  time,  miscreants  engaged  in  this  trade,  who  once  polluted 
our  legislative  halls.  But  suppose  villains  enough  of  the  right 
hue  let  into  the  legislature,  and  pass  laws  that  one  order  of  society 
may  violate  the  honor  of  your  wives  and  daughters ;  would  such  a 
law  on  the  pages  of  our  statute-book  secure  the  perpetrator  from 
condign  punishment  ?  What  can  the  dead  letter  of  a  statute-book 
do,  in  opposition  to  the  public  opinion  of  an  enlightened  and  vir- 
tuous community  ?  " 

Dark  and  revolting  as  is  the  picture  which  1  have  here 
drawn,  there  yet  remains  to  be  added  another  shade  of  still 
deeper  hue.  Through  whose  agency  was  it,  I  ask,  that  a 
thief  now  fills  the  presidential  chair  ?  John  Tyler,  the  present 
head  and  representative  of  the  federal  government,  is  a  vet- 
eran slave-breeder  —  a  negro  thief  of  the  old  Virginia  school, 
who  has  long  supported  his  own  family  in  princely  luxury 
by  desolating  the  domestic  hearth-stones  of  his  defenceless 
neighbors,  and  whose  crimes  in  this  regard,  had  they  been 
perpetrated  North,  instead  of  South,  of  Mason's  and  Dixon's 
line,  would  have  consigned  him  to  the  state's  prison  for  at 
least  two  centuries,  or  until  released  by  death  from  his  igno- 
minious confinement.  Of  Mr.  Tyler's  cabinet  a  majority  are 
negro  thieves  —  five  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  are 
negro  thieves  —  the  president  of  the  United  States  Senate  is 
a  negro  thief — the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
is  a  negro  thief — the  officer  first  in  command  in  the  U.  S. 
army  is  a  negro  thief — a  majority  of  all  our  ministers  to 
foreign  courts  are  negro  thieves.  And  yet  these  men  were  all 
elected  to  office  by  the  votes,  direct  or  indirect,  of  the  great 
body  of  the  Northern  church  and  clergy.  But  why  have  the 
clergy  and  their  adherents  shown  this~preference  for  thieves 
to  rule  the  nation,  and  shape  its  destinies  ?  Doubtless,  be- 
cause they  are  a  "brotherhood  of  thieves,"  as  like  always  seeks 
its  like.  Away,  then,  with  all  their  pretensions  to  Christian- 
ity, or  even  common  honesty.  The  man  who  votes  with  either 
of  the  great  political  parties  does  necessarily  and  inevitably 
legalize  slavery,  both  of  these  parties  being  pledged  not  only 


24 

to  execute  all  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  in  favor  of 
slavery,  but  to  go  even  farther,  and  perpetuate  the  system,  with 
all  its  abominations,  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  the  man 
who  legalizes  slavery,  and  throws  around  it  the  protecting 
shield  of  the  government,  is  the  most  guilty  and  atrocious  of 
slaveholders;  and  eveiy  slaveholder,  as  I  have  already  shown, 
is  guilty  of  the  crimes  of  theft,  adultery,  man-stealing,  piracy, 
and  murder.  It  follows,  then,  as  a  legitimate  and  certain 
conclusion,  that,  as  the  ministers  and  members  of  the  Northern 
church,  with  comparatively  few  exceptions,  have  ranged  them- 
selves in  the  ranks  of  the  Whig  or  Democratic  party,  and 
have  thus  not  only  voluntarily  formed  a  political  alliance  with 
the  slave-claimants,  in  all  the  different  states  of  the  Union, 
guarantying  their  personal  security,  and  the  return  of  their 
fugitive  slaves,  but  have  also  given  their  direct  sanction  to  sla- 
very, by  legalizing  it,  and  refusing  to  emancipate  those  whom 
they  have  a  constitutional  right  to  set  free,  they  are  slavehold- 
ers in  the  most  odious  sense  of  this  term,  and,  as  such,  are 
guilty  of  all  the  crimes  alleged  against  them  in  my  first  charge. 

From  the  conclusion  to  which  we  have  here  arrived  there 
is  no  possible  escape.  Two  and  a  half  millions  of  our  coun- 
trymen, now  loaded  with  chains  and  fetters,  demand  their 
liberty  at  our  hands.  Shall  they  be  free  ?  What  say  the 
Northern  church  and  clergy?  By  voting  for  men  to  rule  the 
country  who  are  known  to  be  the  uncompromising  opponents 
of  abolition,  they  answer  —  No!  By  refusing  to  annul  that 
portion  of  the  Federal  Compact  which  requires  them  to  return 
fugitives  from  slavery,  and  put  down  the  slaves,  should  they 
attempt  to  regain  their  liberty  by  a  resort  to  arms,  they  answer 
—  No  !  By  stifling  the  voice  of  free  discussion,  and  stirring 
up  mobs  against  the  abolitionists,  they  answer  —  No  !  What- 
ever influence  they  possess,  as  citizens,  is  all  thrown  into  the 
scale  of  slavery.  They  looked  upon  John  Tyler  as  he  robbed 
the  frantic  mother  of  her  babe,  and  forthwith  made  him  pres- 
ident of  the  United  States !  They  have  seen  Henry  Clay  and 
John  C.  Calhoun  tear  the  tender  and  confiding  wife  from  the 
fond  embrace  of  her  husband,  and  sell  her  to  a  stranger,  and 
they  are  now  eager  to  confer  on  them  the  same  splendid 
honors !  And  at  this  very  moment  they  stand  with  sword  in 
hand,  ready  to  thurst  it  into  the  heart  of  the  slave,  should  he 
assert  his  freedom,  and  extend  the  hand  of  protection  to  his 
insulted  and  outraged  wife  and  daughters ! 

Should  these  charges  chance  to  meet  the  eye  of  the  guilty 
authors  of  this  wrong,  they  will  doubtless  ask,  "Is  thy  servant 
a  dog,  that  he  should  do  this  great  thing  ?  "  YES,  I  answer, 
emphatically,  ye  are  dogs — the  watch-dogs  of  your  Southern 


25 

masters,  whose  plantations  ye  guard  —  and  as  such,  ye  are  more 
brutal  and  inhuman  than  the  servant  of  the  Syrian  king.  Ye 
daily  rob  more  than  three  hundred  of  your  own  country- 
women of  their  new-born  babes,  and  doom  those  babes  to  a 
fate  more  horrible  than  death,  breaking  the  mother's  heart ! 
Ye  have  recklessly  trampled  under  foot  the  sacred  institution 
of  marriage,  consigned  every  sixth  woman  in  the  country  to  a 
life  of  hopeless  concubinage  and  adultery,  and  turned  your 
famous  Ten-Miles-Square  into  a  mart,  where  the  rich  aristo- 
crat may  lawfully  sell  the  poor  man's  wife  for  purposes  of 
prostitution,  thus  legalizing  violence  on  female  chastity  in  its 
most  horrible  and  disgusting  forms.  Think,  ye  fathers  and 
mothers,  against  whom' I  bring  these  tremendous  charges;  O, 
think  of  your  own  daughters  on  the  block  of  the  auctioneer, 
to  be  sold  to  any  vile  and  loathsome  wretch  who  may  choose 
to  purchase  them,  to  pander  to  his  beastly  lusts !  See  your 
own  darling  son,  in  the  person  of  George  Latimer,  kidnapped 
in  open  day,  in  the  heart  of  New  England's  metropolis,  and 
under  the  very  eye  of  her  pulpit :  behold  him  manacled  in 
open  court,  and  dragged  in  chains  through  the  streets  of  that 
proud  city,  not  by  a  drunken  mob,  but  by  the  police,  with  the 
city  marshal  at  their  head ;  and  finally  immured  with  felons  in  a 
dismal  cell,  there  to  wait,  for  weeks,  with  trembling  anxiety, 
the  horrible  doom  of  a  recaptured  slave  — and  tell  me  if  they 
are  not  dogs,  nay,  fiends  incarnate,  who  perpetrate  such  out- 
rages !  But  remember,  "  Thou  art  the  man !  "  What  I  have 
here  supposed  to  be  done  to  thy  son  and  daughters,  thou  hast 
done  to  the  son  and  daughters  of  another! 

No  intelligent  person,  man  or  woman,  who  is  in  concert 
with  the  Whig  or  Democratic  party,  or  who  votes  for  any 
other  than  an  uncompromising  abolitionist  for  civil  office,  or 
silently  countenances  such  voting,  can  say,  in  truth,  he  is  inno- 
cent of  these  crimes.  It  is  impossible !  Sooner  will  Pontius 
Pilate  shake  from  his  spotted  robes  the  blood  of  the  murdered 
Jesus ;  sooner,  far  sooner,  will  the  infatuated  Jew,  who  cried, 
"  Away  with  him,  away  with  him,  let  him  be  crucified,"  stand 
acquitted  before  the  bar  of  his  final  Judge,  than  such  a  man 
exculpate  himself  from  the 'guilt  of  slavery.  In  imitation  of  the 
Roman  judge,  he  may  wash  his  hands  before  the  people  by 
passing  resolves  against  slavery,  or  excluding  slave-claimants 
from  his  communion-table,  and  say,  "  I  am  innocent  of  the 
blood  of  the  slave ;"  but  it  is  of  no  avail.  Still  in  his  "  skirts  is 
found  the  blood  of  the  souls  of  the  poor  innocents."  For 
private  ends  he  continues  to  sustain,  by  his  vote,  a  system 
which,  in  words,  he  has  repudiated,  as  the  supple  tool  of  the 
envious  Pharisees  condemned  to  death  the  man  whom  he  had 
3 


26 

previously  pronounced  without  a  fault;  and  hence,  in  his 
ecclesiastical  condemnation  of  slavery,  he  only  adds  to  the 
crime  of  slaveholding  the  guilt  of  base  hypocrisy.  So  long  as 
a  solitary  slave  shall  leave  his  foot-prints  on  our  soil,  or  clank 
his  chains  in  our  ears,  no  position  can  be  innocent,  nor  safe, 
but  that  of  uncompromising  hostility  to  whatever  is  in  fellow- 
ship or  alliance  with  the  slave  power  ;  and  they  alone  who 
have  assumed  this  position,  can  justly  claim  exemption  from 
the  charge  of  slaveholding. 

I  might  pursue  the  political  aspect  of  this  subject  still  far- 
ther, and  bring  together  a  great  amount  of  additional  proof  in 
support  of  my  positions.  But  it  is  needless.  Indeed,  more 
evidence  would  only  lumber  and  confuse  the  mind,  instead  of 
aiding  its  conclusions.  I  will,  therefore,  conclude  with  a 
single  additional  consideration. 

The  remark  which  I  wish  to  add  is  this :  The  clerical  and 
lay  members,  with  few  exceptions,  of  all  the  various  religious 
sects  in  the  country,  are  identified  with  one  of  the  two  great 
political  parties  which  administer  and  control  the  government, 
either  by  actually  voting  for  their  candidates,  or  by  a  silent 
acquiescence  in,  and  approval  of,  their  measures.  Those 
clergymen,  who  absent  themselves  from  the  polls,  but  fail  to 
rebuke  the  members  of  their  respective  churches  for  voting 
with  those  parties  in  support  of  slavery,  are  as  responsible  for 
their  votes  as  they  would  be,  had  they  deposited  them  in  the 
ballot-box  with  their  own  hands.  This,  at  least,  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  ancient  prophet :  "  When  I  say  unto  the,  wicked,  O  wicked 
man,  thou  shall  surely  die ;  if  thou  dost  not  speak  to  ivarn  the 
wicked  from  his  way,  that  wicked  man  shall  die  in  his  iniquity ; 
but  his  blood  urill  I  require  at  thine  hand."  (Ezekiel  xxxiii.  8.) 
Hence,  politically,  the  sects  are  Whigs  and  Democrats ;  and 
up  to  this  hour,  they  have  gone  all  lengths  with  these  parties 
in  their  "Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too"  and  " Kinderhook "  con- 
ventions for  the  election  of  slave-masters,  and  "Northern  men 
with  Southern  principles,"  to  fill  the  highest  offices  in  the  gift 
of  the  people.  Now,  I  ask,  were  their  own  children  in  sla- 
very, would  they  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  these  parties  ?  If 
you  say.  yea  ;  then  I- reply,  would  they  honor  with  the  highest 
offices  in  the  government  the  men  who  had  debauched  their 
own  daughters,  and  sold  the  flesh,  and  bones,  and  blood,  of 
their  sons  in  human  shambles.  If  you  say,  nay;  then,  with- 
out further  argument,  are  they  individually  convicted  of 
knowingly  and  intentionally  contributing  of  their  influence  to 
support  the  slave  system  — a  system  that  robs  two  and  a  half 
millions  of  our  countrymen  of  every  right  and  privilege  which 
renders  life  a  blessing;  and  therefore  they  must  answer  to 


27 

God,  not  for  the  enslavement  of  one  or  two  individuals 
merely,  but  of  every  victim  of  our  country's  wrongs  who 
now  pines  in  his  chains.  And  if  Christianity  be  not  a  fable, 
Christ  will  say  to  them,  in  the  day  of  judgment,  not  only  lor 
what  they  have  actually  done  to  sustain  slavery,  but  for  what 
they  have  neglected  to  do  for  its  overthrow,  "I  was  a  hun- 
gered, and  ye  gave  me  no  meat ;  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me 
no  drink ;  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  not  in  ;  naked,  and 
ye  clothed  me  not;  sick  and  in  prison,"  —  down  on  the  planta- 
tions of  the  South  —  " and  ye  visited  me  not."  "Depart  from 
me,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and 
his  angels."  For,  "Verily  I  say  unto  you,  inasmuch  as  ye 
did  it  not  to  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me." 

In  the  former  part  of  my  letter,  I  have  shown  that  slavery 
is  an  American  and  not  a  Southern  institution,  and  that  the 
North  and  South  are  leagued  together  politically  in  its  sup- 
port. I  have  also  shown,  both  by  reference  to  facts,  and  from 
the  testimony  of  distinguished  men  at  the  South,  that  the 
slave  power  could  not  sustain  itself  a  single  hour,  without  the 
aid  and  protection  of  the  general  government,  but  must  fall  at 
once  before  the  avenging  arm  of  its  outraged  victims;  and, 
consequently,  that  all  who  sustain  the  government  in  its  pres- 
ent pro-slavery  character,  do  thereby  sustain  the  slave  system, 
and  should  be  held  responsible  for  all  the  guilt  and  misery 
which  it  involves.  But  while  the  federal  government,  that 
is,  the  electors  of  the  country,  are  the  direct  and  visible  agents 
on  whose  authority  and  fostering  care  slavery  depends  for 
support  and  perpetuity,  there  is  in  this  case,  as  in  most  others 
of  a  like  nature,  "a  power  behind  the  throne  greater  than  the 
throne  itself;"  for  in  a  country  like  ours,  civil  government  is 
of  no  force,  any  farther  than  it  is  sustained  by  popular  senti- 
ment. The  will  of  the  people  for  the  time  being  is  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land,  the  legislative  and  executive  depart- 
ments of  the  government  being  nothing  more  than  a  mere  echo 
of  the  popular  will.  Hence  the  power  which  controls  public 
opinion  does,  in  fact,  give  laws  to  our  country,  and  is,  there- 
fore, preeminently  responsible  for  the  vices  which  are  sanc- 
tioned by  those  laws.  That  power,  in  this  case,  is  the  priest- 
hood, backed  up  and  supported  by  the  church.  They  are  the 
manufacturers  of  our  public  sentiment;  and,  consequently, 
they  hold  in  their  hand  the  key  to  the  great  prison-house  of 
Southern  despotism,  and  can  "open  and  no  man  shut,  and 
shut  and  no  .man  open." 

There  are  in  our  country  more  than  20,000  of  this  class  of 
men,  scattered  over  every  part  of  the  land,  and  at  the  same  time 
so  united  in  national  and  local  associations  as  to  act  in  perfect 


28 

harmony,  whenever  concert  is  required.  They  constitute  wnat 
may  properly  be  termed  a  religions  aristocracy.  Among  the 
exclusive  privileges  which  they  claim  and  enjoy,  is  the  right  to 
administer  the  ordinances  of  religion,  and  to  lead  in  all  our  re- 
ligious services.  The  ear  of  the  nation  is  open  to  them  every 
seventh  day  of  the  week,  when  they  pour  into  it  just  such  sen- 
timents as  they  choose.  And  not  only  are  they  in  direct  and 
constant  contact  with  the  people  in  their  public  ministrations, 
but  in  their  parochial  visits,  at  the  sick  bed,  at  weddings,  and 
at  funerals,  all  of  which  are  occasions  when  the  mind  is  pe- 
culiarly tender,  and  susceptible  of  deep  and  lasting  impres- 
sions. Amply  supported  by  the  contributions  of  the  church, 
their  whole  time  is  devoted  to  the  work  of  moulding  and 
giving  character  to  public  sentiment;  and  with  the  advan- 
tages which  they  enjoy  over  all  other  classes  of  society,  of 
leisure,  the  sanctity  of  their  office,  and  direct  and  constant 
contact  with  the  people  as  their  "spiritual  guides,"  their 
power  has  become  all-controlling.  It  is  in  a  fnite.  sense  omni- 
present in  every  section  of  the  country,  and  is  absolutely  ir- 
resistible, wherever  their  claims  are  allowed.  Hence  what 
they  countenance  it  will  be  next  to  an  impossibility  to  over- 
throw, at  least  till  their  order  itself  be  overthrown  ;  and  what- 
ever system  of  evil  they  oppose,  must  melt  away  like  snow 
beneath  the  warm  rays  of  an  April  sun. 

To  illustrate  the  strength  of  their  power  more  fully,  I  will 
suppose  a  case.  The  car  of  temperance  rolls  back  its  ponder- 
ous wheels,  and  we  become  a  nation  of  drunkards.  Midnight 
gloom  covers  the  whole  land.  The  voice  of  the  reformer  is 
no  longer  heard  in  stern  rebuke,  against  the  general  debauch 
which  is  now  rife  in  every  rank  ami  grade  of  society.  The 
traffic  in  intoxicating  drink  is  legalized  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  and  by  a  law  of  Congress  for  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, every  person  who  visits  the  seat  of  government  on 
business,  or  for  pleasure,  may  be  compelled  to  drink  to  in- 
toxication, on  penalty  of  thirty-nine  lashes  on  his  bare  back, 
inflicted  at  discretion  of  the  rum-sellers  of  the  district. 

In  this  state  of  things,  suddenly  some  daring  spirit  starts 
up,  and  with  the  watchword  of  reform  gathers  around  him 
a  little  band  of  fearless  coadjutors,  who  with  himself  pledge 
their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor,  to  the 
glorious  work  of  delivering  their  country  from  the  scourge 
and  curse  of  intemperance.  Struck  with  the  sanctity  of  their 
professions,  they  naturally  look  to  the  priesthood  and  church 
for  aid  and  cooperation.  But  to  their  surprise,  they  find  that 
thousands  of  the  clergy  are  not  only  the  victims,  but  the 
apologists,  and  advocates,  of  this  degrading  vice  and  crime ; 


29 

many  of  them  are  among  the  best  customers  of  the  rum-seller ; 
they  often  go  reeling  and  staggering  from  the  grog-shop  to  the 
meeting-house,  and  are  obliged  to  ascend  the  pulpit  on  bor- 
rowed feet ;  and  it  not  unfrequently  occurs,  during  the  Di- 
vine services  of  the  Sabbath,  that  the  sentiments  of  melting 
tenderness  which  flow  forth  in  supplication  from  the  pious 
heart  of  the  officiating  priest,  are  interrupted  on  their  pas- 
sage by  a  sudden  explosion  of  the  contents  of  the  decanter 
from  his  surcharged  stomach.  Deacons,  too,  in  countless 
numbers,  are  drunkards ;  the  communion  season  is  often  a 
Bacchanalian  revel ;  and  much  of  the  revenues  of  the  church 
is  the  profits  of  the  distillery.  Doctors  of  divinity  and  presi- 
dents of  our  theological  seminaries  are  often  found  engaged 
in  amassing  wealth  by  rum-selling;  and  not  a  few  of  the 
members  and  officers  of  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions,  and  of  the  American  Bible 
Society,  are  addicted  to  habitual  intoxication  ;  while  the  en- 
tire body  of  the  priesthood  and  church,  of  all  denominations, 
are  united  in  electing  to  the  highest  offices  in  the  gift  of 
the  people  men  who  are  not  only  notorious  drunkards,  but 
who  are  also  known  to  be  in  favor  of  perpetuating  the  in- 
famous law,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  which  allows  the 
rum-sellers  of  the  district  to  compel  the  citizens  of  the  place, 
and  strangers  from  abroad,  to  drink  to  intoxication,  or  sub- 
mit to  thirty-nine  lashes  on  their  bare  bucks. 

Schooled  in  the  philosophy  of  the  apostle  who  taught  that 
"judgment  must  begin  at  the  house  of  God,"  the  reformers 
call  first  upon  the  church  and  priesthood  to  repent,  and  sign 
the  pledge  of  total  abstinence.  A  few  comply  with  the  call, 
and  not  only  sign  the  pledge,  but  advocate  its  merits ;  but 
much  the  larger  portion  continue  to  drink  ;  and  to  save  their 
own  reputation,  they  pour  contempt  and  ridicule  on  the 
friends  of  total  abstinence,  and  wink  at  the  mobs  which  are 
got  up  to  put  them  down.  Presbyteries  resolve  that  drunk- 
enness "  is  not  opposed  to  the  will  of  God."  The  General 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  declare,  by  an 
overwhelming  vote,  that  they  have  no  "  right,  wish,  or  in- 
tention," to  abolish  intemperance.  Professor  Stuart  comes 
out  in  a  published  letter,  and  denounces  the  lectures  on  total 
abstinence  as  mere  "  spoutings  and  vehemence,"  and  boldly 
declares  that  men  may  get  drunk  "without  violating  the 
Christian  faith,  or  the  church."  President  Fisk  endorses  this 
doctrine,  and  asserts  that  it  "  will  stand,  because  it  is  Bible 
doctrine."  Some  of  the  smaller  sects,  and  local  bodies  in  the 
more  influential  ones,  pass  resolutions  in  favor  of  temperance, 
but  at  the  same  time  slander  and  traduce  its  firmest  and  most 
3* 


30 

unflinching  friends,  because  they  refuse  to  recognize  a  rum- 
drinking  and  rum-selling  church  and  clergy  as  the  represen- 
tatives and  followers  of  Christ ;  and  as  if  to  give  undoubted 
proof  of  their  hypocrisy,  they  still  continue  to  vote  for  drunk- 
ards, and  the  advocates  of  the  compulsion  law,  for  the  presi- 
dency and  all  other  important  offices  in  the  gift  of  the 
people,  and  sternly  resist  every  importunity  of  the  friends  of 
temperance  to  aid  in  the  election  of  men  who  are  in  favor 
of  repealing  that  infernal  enactment 

Now,  with  the  church  and  clergy  in  this  position,  what 
progress,  I  as*k,  could  the  friends  of  temperance  hope  to  make 
in  their  work  of  reform  ?  It  requires  all  the  moral  power 
which  they  can  command  to  make  headway  against  the  de- 
praved appetite  of  the  drunkard,  with  the  church  and  clergy 
nominally  in  their  favor.  What,  then,  could  they  do  with  this 
mighty  influence  openly  pitted  against  them,  and  on  the 
side  of  the  drunkard  ?  Would  they  ever  dream  of  putting 
down  intemperance  by  political  action,  so  long  as  the  land 
was  cursed  with  a  drunken  and  besotted  church  and  priest- 
hood, and  they  were  themselves  in  full  fellowship  with  that 
church  and  priesthood  ?  Surely,  no  man  in  his  sober  senses 
would  ever  seriously  entertain  such  an  idea.  Men  of  sense 
would  see,  at  a  glance,  that  the  church  and  clergy  were  a 
strong  and  impervious  rampart  around  the  citadel  of  intem- 
perance, and  that  the  only  hope  of  our  country  was  in  their 
speedy  conversion  or  utter  overthrow. 

But  is  there  any  analogy  between  the  case  I  have  here  sup- 
posed and  the  one  under  consideration  ?  Is  it  true  that 
thousands  of  the  ministers  of  our  country  are  slaveholders  ? 
Are  our  deacons,  in  countless  numbers,  slave-Breeders  and 
slave-traders  ?  Do  doctors  of  divinity,  and  presidents  of 
our  theological  seminaries  enhance  their  wealth  by  plun- 
dering cnulles  and  trundle-beds  ?  Do  members  and  officers 
of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  and  of  the  A.  li.  S.  claim  their  neigh- 
bor's wives  and  daughters,  and  appropriate  them  to  their  own 
use  as  chattels  personal  ?  Have  presbyteries  passed  resolves 
that  "  the  holding  of  slaves,  so  far  from  being  a  sin  in  the 
sight  of  God,  is  nowhere  condemned  in  his  holy  word  ?  " 
Has  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  publicly  declared  that  it  had  "  no  right,  wish,  or  in- 
tention," to  abolish  the  infernal  slave  system. 

Has  Professor  Stuart  denounced  the  lectures  of  aboli- 
tionists as  mere  "  spouting  and  vehemence,"  and  boldly  de- 
clared that  the  strong  may  enslave  the  weak,  without  violating 
the  "  Christian  faith  or  the  church  "  ?  And  has  President  Fisk 
endorsed  this  doctrine,  and  asserted  that  "  it  will  stand,  be- 


31 

cause  it  is  Bibk  doctrine"?  Do  those  sects  and  local  ec- 
clesiastical bodies  which  adopt  resolutions  in  favor  of  anti- 
slavery,  at  the  same  time  slander  and  vilify  the  character  of 
its  firmest  and  most  unflinching  friends,  because  they  refuse 
to  recognize  a  pro-slavery  church  and  clergy  as  the  followers 
of  Christ  ?  And  do  they,  as  a  body,  still  persist  in  voting  for 
slave-claimants  and  pro-slavery  men  to  fill  the  highest  offices 
in  the  gift  of  the  people,  and  that,  too,  agaiust  the  earnest  re- 
monstrances and  entreaties  of  the  abolitionists  ?  Truth,  I  re- 
gret to  say,  requires  an  affirmative  answer  to  all  these  ques- 
tions! The  entire  body  of  the  church  and  clergy  of  the 
country  are  in  Christian  fellowship  with  slavery,  that  is,  with 
those  who  legalize  the  system ;  while  a  large  proportion  of 
them  are  its  open  and  unblushing  advocates  and  apologists ! 
Not  a  solitary  sect  in  the  land,  of  any  magnitude,  has  espoused 
the  anti-slavery  cause.  They  all,  without  exception,  stand 
on  the  side  of  the  oppressor,  and  legalize  his  atrocities.  They 
pass  from  the  communion-table  to  the  ballot-box,  and  there 
deposit  their  votes  for  the  man  who  has  robbed  his  neigh- 
bor's cradle,  to  fill  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people. 
Not  a  chain  has  been  forged  —  not  a  fetter  has  been  riveted 
on  any  human  being  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  without  their 
sanction !  The  question  has  often  been  put  to  them,  "  Do 
you,  the  professed  ministers  and  followers  of  Christ,  wish  the 
capital  of  your  country  to  remain  a  human  flesh-mart,  where 
your  Savior  may  be  sold,  in  the  persons  of  his  followers, 
under  the  auction  hammer  ?  "  and  they  have  as  often  returned 
an  affirmative  answer !  And  whenever  the  abolitionists  have 
sent  up  their  petitions  to  Congress  for  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
the  church  and  clergy  have  sent  men  there  as  their  repre- 
sentatives, who  have  basely  trampled  those  petitions  under 
their  feet ! 

But  it  is  not  in  their  political  capacity  that  the  influence  of 
the  church  and  clergy  has  been  most  prejudicial  to  the  cause 
of  emancipation.  True,  they  have  rivalled  the  infidel  and 
nothingarian  in  their  support  of  pro-slavery  parties ;  and  their 
recreancy  at  the  ballot-box  has  been  such  as  to  merit  the 
severest  epithets  which  I  have  ever  bestowed  upon  them. 
But  in  their  ecclesiastical  character,  they  have  publicly  defended 
the  slave  system  as  an  innocent  and  Heaven-ordained  institution, 
and  have  thrown  the  sacred  sanctions  of  religion  around  it,  by  in- 
troducing it  into  the  pulpit,  and  to  the  communion-table  !  At  the 
South,  nearly  the  entire  body  of  the  clergy  publicly  advocate 
the  perpetuity  of  slavery,  and  denounce  the  abolitionists  as 
fanatics,  incendiaries,  and  cut-throats  ;  and  the  churches  and 
clergy  of  the  North  still  fellowship  them,  and  palm  them  off 


32 

upon  the  world  as  the  ministers  of  Christ.  I  know  it  will  be 
said  that  there  are  exceptions  to  this  charge ;  but  if  there  be 
any,  I  have  yet  to  learn  of  them.  I  know  not  of  a  single  ec- 
clesiastical body  in  the  country  which  has  excommunicated 
any  of  its  members  for  the  crime  of  slaveholding,  since  the 
commencement  of  the  anti-slavery  enterprise,  though  most  of 
them  have  cast  out  the  true  and  faithful  abolitionists  from 
their  communion. 

I  might  with  great  propriety  pursue  these  general  remarks, 
and  indulge  in  a  somewhat  severer  strain  ;  but  to  understand 
the  true  character  of  the  American  church  and  clergy,  and 
the  full  extent  of  their  atrocities,  you  must  hear  them  speak 
in  their  own  language.  Should  I  tell  you  the  whole  truth 
respecting  them,  and  tell  it  in  my  own  words,  I  fear  you 
would  entertain  the  same  opinion  of  me  that  the  Bramin  did 
of  his  English  friend,  who,  on  a  certain  occasion,  as  they 
were  walking  together  along  the  banks  of  a  beautiful  river, 
admiring  the  richness  of  its  scenery,  imprudently  remarked, 
that  in  his  country,  during  the  winter  season,  the  water  be- 
came so  solid  that  an  elephant  could  walk  upon  it.  The 
Bramin  replied,  "  Sir,  you  have  told  me  many  strange  and 
incredible  things  respecting  your  country  before,  yet  I  have 
always  believed  you  to  be  a  man  of  truth,  but  now  I  know 
you  lie."  So,  if  I  tel)  the  truth  respecting  the  American 
church  and  clergy,  I  am  afraid  you  will  think  me  guilty  of 
falsehood.  I  will  therefore  introduce  several  of  the  leading 
sects,  and  let  them  speak  for  themselves,  through  the  resolves 
of  their  respective  ecclesiastical  bodies,  and  the  published 
sentiments  of  their  accredited  ministers  ;  and  although  you 
might  not  believe  me,  should  I  tell  you  that  they  have  "  no 
wish  or  intention,"  to  abolish  slavery,  yet  you  will  believe 
them,  I  trust,  when  you  hear  the  declaration  from  their  own 
lips.  I  will  begin  with 

THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

This  church  extends,  in  territory,  over  the  whole  Union, 
and  embraces  in  its  communion,  at  the  present  time,  over 
1,000,000  members,  of  whom  probably  not  less  than  100,000 
are  slaves.  It  comprises  32  Annual  Conferences,  from  which 
delegates  are  chosen  to  meet  in  General  Conference,  once  in 
four  years.  The  church  is  governed  by  six  bishops,  who  are 
elected  by  the  General  Conference,  and  whose  duty  it  is  to 
preside  at  the  Annual  Conferences ;  fix  the  appointment  of 
preachers ;  ordain  bishops,  elders,  and  deacons ;  and  oversee 
the  spiritual  and  temporal  business  of  the  church. 


33 

The  first  meeting  of  the  General  Conference,  subsequent  to 
the  formation  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  was  in 
Cincinnati,  in  May,  1836.  On  the  evening  of  the  10th  of  May, 
the  Cincinnati  A.  S.  S.  held  a  public  meeting,  which  was  ad- 
dressed by  two  of  the  members  of  the  Conference.  On  the 
12th  of  May,  Rev.  S.  G.  Roszell  presented  to  the  Conference 
the  following  preamble  and  resolutions :  — 

"  Whereas  great  excitement  has  pervaded  this  country  on  the 
subject  of  modern  abolitionism,  which  is  reported  to  have  been  in- 
creased in  this  city  recently,  by  the  unjustifiable  conduct  of  two 
members  of  the  General  Conference  in  lecturing  upon,  and  in 
favor  of  that  agitating  topic ; —  and  whereas  such  a  course  on  the 
part  of  any  of  its  members  is  calculated  to  bring  upon  this  body 
the  suspicion  and  distrust  of  the  community,  and  misrepresent  its 
sentiments  in  regard  to  the  point  at  issue  ;  —  and  whereas,  in  this 
aspect  of  the  case,  a  due  regard  for  its  own  character,  as  well  as  a 
just  concern  for  the  interests  of  the  church  confided  to  its  care, 
demand  a  full,  decided,  and  unequivocal  expression  of  the  views  of 
the  General  Conference  in  the  premises  ;  "  —  Therefore, 

Resolved,— 

1.  "By  the  delegates  of  the  Annual  Conference  in  General 
Conference  assembled,  that  they  disapprove,  in  the  most  unqualified 
sense,  the  conduct  of  the  two  members  of  the  General  Conference, 
who  are  reported  to  have  lectured  in  this  city  recently,  upon  and  in 
favor  of  modern  abolitionism." 

Resolved, — 

2.  ."  By  the  delegates  of  the  Annual  Conference  in  General  Con- 
ference assembled,  —  that  they  are  decidedly  opposed  to  modern 
abolitionism,  and  wholly  disclaim  any  right,  wish,  or  intention,  to 
interfere   in  the  civil  and  political    relation  between  master  and 
slave,  as  it  exists  in  the  slaveholding  states  of  this  Union." 

These  resolutions,  after  full  discussion,  were  adopted  by  the 
Conference  —  the  first  by  a  vote  of  122  to  11,  the  last  120 
to  14. 

Accompanying  these  resolutions,  as  they  went  forth  to  the 
world  to  "  define  the  position "  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  on  the  great  question  which  is  now  agitating  the  land, 
was  a  Pastoral  Address  to  the  churches,  which  contains  the 
following  passages :  — 

"  These  facts,  which  are  only  mentioned  here  as  a  reason  for  the 
friendly  admonition  which  we  wish  to  give  you,  constrain  us,  as 
your  pastors,  who  are  called  to  watch  over  your  souls,  as  they  must 
give  account,  to  exhort  you  to  abstain  from  all  abolition  movements 
and  associations,  and  to  refrain  from  patronizing  any  of  their  pub- 
lications, &c. 

"  From  every  view  of  the  subject  which  we  have  been  able  to 
take,  and  from  the  most  calm  and  dispassionate  survey  of  the  whole 


34 

ground,  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  only  safe,  scrip- 
tural, and  prudent  way  for  us,  both  as  ministers  and  people,  to 
take,  is,  wholly  to  refrain  from  this  agitating  subject"  &c. 

Such  was  the  language  of  the  representative  body  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  on  the  great  question  of  emanci- 
pation, in  1836.  They  here  declare,  emphatically,  that  they 
have  no  "wish  or  intention  to  interfere  in  the  civil  and  political 
relation  between  master  and  slave,"  and  exhort  their  brethren 
to  "  abstain  from  all  abolition  movements  and  associations," 
and  "  wholly  to  refrain  from  this  agitating  subject ! "  And 
what  could  a  conclave  of  demons  in  hell  have  said  more  ? 
Surely  no  other  banditti  on  earth  would  have  gone  so  far  — 
not  in  hypocrisy,  at  least,  if  they  had  in  cold-blooded  bar- 
barity. Mark  the  language  of  the  reverend  scoundrels.  They 
have  no  "urish  or  intention"  to  abolish  the  infernal  slave 
system !  Every  circumstance  of  the  scene  contributes  to 
heighten  their  guilt.  They  claim  to  be  ambassadors  of  Christ, 
assembled  for  the  purpose  of  extending  his  kingdom  on  the 
earth,  —  before  them  lie  two  millions  of  their  countrymen, 
ground  into  the  very  dust  beneath  "  a  bondage,  one  hour  of 
which  is  fraught  with  more  misery  than  ages  of  that  which 
our  fathers  rose  in  rebellion  to  oppose;"  and  yet  they  have 
"no  wish  or  intention  to  interfere  witli  their  civil  and  political 
relations ! "  ( These  hapless  victims  of  republican  despotism 
are  prohibited  by  law  from  learning  the  letters  of  the  alphabet, 
and,  of  course,  from  reading  the  Bible  ;  and  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  their  condition  as  chattels,  they  are  de- 
prived of  the  institution  of  marriage,  and  doomed  to  a  life  of 
universal  prostitution  and  concubinage  • — and  yet  they  have 
"  no  wish  or  intention  to  interfere  with  their  civil  and  political 
relations ! "  A  million  of  American  women  are  daily  thrown 
into  the  market,  and  offered  for  sale  for  purposes  of  prostitu- 
tion, to  any  person  of  sufficient  wealth  to  command  their  price 
—  and  yet  they  have  "no  wish  or  intention  to  interfere  with 
their  civil  and  political  relations ! "  They  see  before  them 
men  and  women,  many  of  them  members  of  their  own  church, 
chained  together  by  dozens  and  scores,  hand-cuffed,  and 
driven  from  their  homes,  and  all  that  is  dear  to  them  on 
earth,  to  a  distent  market,  and  there  sold  with  the  meanest 
brutes  —  and  yet  they  have  "  no  wish  or  intention  to  interfere 

" 


with  their  civil  and  political  relations ! "  They  look 
over  the  country,  and  behold  the  hundreds  of  mothers  who 
are  daily  robbed' of  their  darling  babes,  and  witness  the  keen 
anguish  and  perfect  desperation  to  which  they  are  often 
driven  by  the  strength  of  maternal  affection  —  and  yet  they 
have  "  no  tvish  or  intention  to  interfere  with  their  civil  and 


35 

political  relations!"  No,  they  have  not  one  solitary  word  of 
consolation  for  the  poor,  heart-broken,  despairing  slave !  They 
have  "no  wish"  to  see  him  free  !  So  they  tell  us.  The  clank 
of  the  chain,  and  the  crack  of  the  driver's  whip,  are  rnusic  to 
their  ears  !  They  cannot  even  pray  that  this  nefarious  system 
may  come  to  an  end,  for  "  they  are  decidedly  opposed  to  modtrn 
abolitionism"  Not  less  so,  doubtless,  than  Beelzebub  him- 
self! They  prefer  the  continuance  of  slavery  !  And  not  con- 
tent with  merely  passing  by  their  robbed  and  bleeding  coun- 
trymen, like  the  priest  and  Levite  of  old,  and  leaving  them  to 
the  charity  of  others,  they  must  turn  aside  from  their  pious 
calling,  to  give  a  dagger-thrust  at  the  reputation  of  those  who 
are  kindly  binding  up  their  wounds ! 

The  next  meeting  of  this  body  was  in  Baltimore,  in  1840. 
It  was  to  be  hoped  that  the  rising  spirit  of  liberty  which  was 
now  agitating  the  country,  and  opening  the  eyes  of  thousands 
to  the  wrongs  of  our  enslaved  countrymen,  would  reach  the 
ministry  of  the  Methodist  church,  and  in  some  degree,  at 
least,  soften  their  obdurate  hearts.  But  the  action  of  this 
Conference  shows  that  the  preaching  of  the  truth,  so  far  as 
they  were  concerned,  had  only  proved  "a  savor  of  death 
unto  death."  Instead  of  lightening  the  burdens  of  the  pre- 
vious Conference,  their  little  Jinger  was  thicker  than  their 
predecessor's  loins.  The  Conference  oflg36  had  chastised  the 
slaves  and  their  advocates  with  -whips,  but  they  chastised 
them  with  scorpions.  Up  to  this  date,  the  slaves  in  this 
church  had,  nominally  at  least,  enjoyed  that  last  privilege  of 
the  oppressed,  the  right  of  complaint  But,  for  reasons  to 
which  I  shall  hereafter  refer,  this  sacred  right  was  now 
wrested  from  them,  and  all  recognition  of  their  manhood 
totally  annihilated  at  one  fell  swoop,  by  the  adoption  of  the 
following  resolution,  which  was  presented  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
A.  G.  Few,  of  Georgia :  — 

Resolved,  — 

"  That  it  is  inexpedient  and  unjustifiable  for  any  preacher  to  per- 
mit colored  persons  to  give  testimony  against  white  persons,  in  any 
state  where  they  are  denied  that  privilege  by  law." 

By  this  rule  which  is  now  a  part  of  the  discipline  of  the 
church,  more  than  80,000  of  its  colored  members  are  denied 
the  right  to  testify  against  a  white  brother  or  sister  in  any 
case  whatsoever.  No  matter  what  the  crime  may  be,  or 
how  aggravating  the  circumstances.  The  reverend  mover  of 
the  resolution  can  now  violate  the  chastity  of  the  colored 
members  of  his  church  with  entire  impunity.  He  is  no 
louger  in  any  danger  of  being  censured  and  silenced  by  his 


36 

more  fortunate  brethren,  as  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Fay  was.  Should 
he  unfortunately  be  "overtaken  in  a  fault,"  the  church  has 
'provided  a  way  of  escape."  And  an  ample  provision  it  is, 
even  for  the  chiefest  of  sinners.  Neither  the  reverend  doctor, 
nor  any  of  his  coadjutors,  could  desire  greater  liberty  —  or 
privileges,  as  they  might  term  it.  The  lips  of  their  victim 
and  her  friends  are  now  hermetically  sealed  up,  both  in  the 
church  and  in  the  civil  tribunals.  The  aggrieved  party  can 
now  obtain  no  redress,  however  aggravated  the  offence.  The 
state  has  declared  her  body  to  be  the  property  of  her  white 
brother;  and  the  church  has  decided  that  it  will  entertain 
none  of  her  complaints,  whatever  use  he  may  make  of  it. 
What  more  could  even  the  clergy  ask  ?  But  I  forbear. 

The  course  of  the  faithless  miscreants  who  adopted  this 
and  the  preceding  resolutions,  was  acquiesced  in  by  all  the 
local  Conferences,  and  cordially  approved  by  most  of  them, 
and  by  nearly  all  the  distinguished  and  influential  ministers 
in  the  denomination. 

In  support  of  the  position  assumed  by  the  General  Con- 
ference, the  Ohio  Annual  Conference 
Resolved,  — 

"That  those  brethren  of  the  North,  who  resist  the  abolition 
movements  with  firmness  and  moderation,  are  the  true  friends  of 
the  church,  to  the  slaves  of  the  South,  and  to  the  constitution  of 
our  common  country,"  &c 

The  New  York  Annual  Conference 
\       Resolved,— 

"'"1.  That  this  Conference  fully  concur  in  the  advice  of  the  late 
General  Conference,  as  expressed  in  their  Pastoral  Address. 

"  2.  That  we  disapprove   of   the   members  of  this  Conference 

patronizing,  or  in  any  way  giving  countenance  to  a  paper  called 

".Zion's  Watchman,"  because,  in  our  opinion,  it  tends  to  disturb 

/  the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  body,  by  sowing  dissension  in  the 

,  t   church." 

Resolved,  — 

3.  "That  although  we  could  not  condemn  any  man,  or  withhold 
our  suffrages  from  him  on  account  of  his  opinions  merely,  in  refer- 
•ence  to  the  subject  of  abolitionism,  yet  we  are  decidedly  of  the 
opinion  that  none  ought  to  be  elected  to  the  office  of  deacon  or 
elder  in  our  church,  unless  he  give  a  pledge  to  the  Conference, 
jthat  he  will  refrain  from  agitating  the  church  with  discussions  on 
[this,  subject." 

The  Georgia  Annual  Conference 

Resolved  unanimously, — 

1.  "That  it  is  the  sense  of  the  Georgia  Annual  Conference,  that 
slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the  United  States,  is  not  a  moral  evil. 


37 

Resolved,  — 

2.  "  That  we  view  slavery  as  a  civil  and  domestic  institution, 
and  one  with  which,  as  ministers  of  Christ,  we  have  nothing  to 
do,  further  than  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  slave,  by  en- 
deavoring to  impart  to  him  and  his  master  the  benign  influence/ 
of  the  religion  of  Christ,  and  aiding  both  on  their  way  to  heaven." 

Which  religion,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church,  is  not  opposed  to  the  perpetuity  of  slavery ;  but  al- 
lows one  member  of  the  church  to  claim  and  use  another's 
wife  as  his  property,  and  to  appropriate  her  to  such  use  as  he 
may  deem  proper  or  desirable,  the  enslaved  woman  having 
no  right  to  enter  and  substantiate  a  complaint  against  her 
master  before  the  church !  This  is  Methodism !  This  is  the 
religion  which  the  Methodist  clergy  "impart"  to  the  poor 
heart-broken  slave,  and  to  his  inhuman  master.  This,  too,  is 
the  religion  which  they  "  impart "  to  their  poor,  deluded  vassals 
at  the  North.  Bear  with  me  while  I  present  a  few  more 
specimens  of  it,  from  the  lips  of  its  most  distinguished  advo- 
cates. 

Rev.  E.  D.  Simons,  professor  in  Macon  College :  — 

"These  extracts  from  HOLY  WRIT  UNEQ.UIVOCAI.LY  ASSERT  THE 
RIGHT  OF  PROPERTY  IN  SLAVES,  together  with  the  usual  incidents 
of  that  right ;  such  as  the  power  of  acquisition  and  disposition  in 
various  ways,  according  to  municipal  regulations.  The  right  to 
buy  and  sell,  and  to  transmit  to  children  by  way  of  inheritance,  is 
clearly  stated.  The  only  restriction  on  the  subject  is  in  reference 
to  the  market,  in  which  slaves  or  bondmen  were  to  be  purchased. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  then,  whether  we  consult  the  Jewish  polity 
instituted  by  God  himself,  or  the  uniform  opinion  and  practice  of 
mankind  in  all  ages  of  the  world,  or  the  injunctions  of  the  New 
Testament  and  the  moral  law,  we  are  brought  to  the  conclusion 
that  jlavery  is  not  immoral. 

'  ""Having  established  the  point,  that  the  first  African  slaves  were 
legally  brought  into  bondage,  the  right  to  detain  their  children  in 
bondage,  follows  as  an  indispensable  consequence. 

"  Thus  we  see  that  the  slavery  which  exists  in  America  was 
founded  in  right." 

llev.  Wilbur  Fisk,  D.  D.,  late  president  of  the  Wesleyan 
University,  Connecticut :  — 

"  The  relation  of  master  and  slave  may,  and  does,  in  many  cases, 
exist  under  such  circumstances,  as  frees  the  master  from  the  just 
charge  and  guilt  of  immorality. 

"  The  general  rule  of  Christianity  not  only  permits,  but,  in 
supposable  circumstances,  enjoins  a  continuance  of  the  master's 
authority. 

"  The  New  Testament  enjoins  obedience  upon  the  slave  as  an 
obligation  due  to  a  present  rightful  authority." 


38 

Elijah  Hedding,  D.  D.,  one  of  the  six  Methodist  bishops :  — 

J{    \     "The  right  to  hold  a  slave  is  founded  on  this  rule  :  '  Therefore, 
'J\    jail  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
'even  so  unto  them ;  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets." 

Rev.  William  Winans,  of  Mississippi,  in  the  General  Con- 
ference, in  1836:-- 

"  He  was  not  born  in  a  slave  state — he  was  a  Pennsylvanian 
by  birth.  He  had  been  brought  up  to  believe  a  slaveholder  as 
great  a  villain  as  a  horse-thief;  but  he  had  gone  to  the  South,  and 
long  residence  there  had  changed  his  views ;  he  had  become  a 
slaveholder  on  principle."  *  *  *  "  Though  a  slaveholder  himself, 
no  abolitionist  felt  more  sympathy  for  the  slave  than  he  did  — 
none  had  rejoiced  more  in  the  hope  of  a  coming  period,  wheji__the 
print  of  a  slave's  foot  would  not  be  seen  on  the  soil."  '  t_^"lt 
was  important  to  the  interests  of  .slaves,  and  in  view  of  the~ques- 
tion  of  slavery,  that  there  be  Christians  who  were  slaveholders. 
Christian  ministers  should  be  slaveholders,  and  diffused  through- 
out the  South.  Yes,  sir,  Presbyterians,  Baptists,  Methodists,  should 
be  slaveholders:  —  yes,  he  repeated  it  boldly — there  should  be 
members,  mid  deacons,  and  ELDERS,  and  BISHOPS,  too,  who  were 
slaveholders." 

Rev.  J.  C.Tbstell,  Orangeburg,  South  Carolina,  in  an  ad- 
dress at  a  public  meeting  called  for  the  purpose  of  opposing 
abolition : 

"From  what  has  been  premised,  the  following  conclusions  re- 
Bult :  1.  That  slavery  is  a  judicial  visitation.  2.  That  it  is  not  a 
moral  evil.  3.  That  it  is  supported  by  the  Bible.  4.  It  has  existed 
in  all  ages. 

-*'  It  is  not  a  moral  evil.  The  fact,  that  slavery  is  of  DIVINE 
APPOINTMENT,  would  be  proof  enough  with  the  Christian  that  it 
cannot  be  amoral  evil."  *  *  "  So  far  from  being  a  moral  evil,  it  is 
a  merciful  visitation.  If  slavery  was  either  the  invention  of  man, 
or  a  moral  evil,  it  is  logical  to  conclude,  the  power  to  create  has 
the  power  to  destroy.  Why,  then,  has  it  existed  ?  And  why  does 
it  now  exist  amidst  all  the  power  of  legislation  in  state  and  church, 
and  the  clamor  of  abolitionists?  It  is  the  Lord's  DOINGS,  AND  IT  is 
MARVELLOUS  IN  OUR  EYES  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  best,  God 
alone,  who  is  able,  long  since  would  have  overruled  it.  IT  is  BY 

DIVINE  APPOINTMENT." 

The  same  individual  to  the  editor  of  Zion's  Watchman 

"  To  La  Roy  Sunderland,  &c. 

"  Did  you  calculate  to  misrepresent  the  Methodist  discipline, 
and  say  it  supported  abolitionism,  when  the  General  Conference, 
in  their  late  resolutions,  denounced  it  as  a  libel  on  truth,  f  '  O 
full  of  all  subtlety,  thou  child  of  the  devil ! '  all  liars,  saith  the  sa- 


39 

cred  volume,  shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake  of  fire  and  brim- 
stone. 

"  I  can  only  give  one  reason  why  you  have  not  been  indicted  for 
a  libel.  The  law  says, '  The  greater  the  truth  the  greater  the  li- 
bel ;  '  and  as  your  paper  has  no  such  ingredient,  it  is  construed  but 
a  small  matter.  But  if  you  desire  to  educate  the  slaves,  I  will 
toll  you  how  to  raise  the  money,  without  editing  Zion's  Watch- 
man. You  and  old  Arthur  Tappan  come  out  to  the  South  this 
winter,  and  they  will  raise  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  you. 
New  Orleans  itself  will  be  pledged  for  it.  Desiring  no  further 
acquaintance  with  you,  and  never  expecting  to  see  you  but  once 
in  time  or  eternity,  that  is,  at  judgment,  I  subscribe  myself,  the 
friend  of  the  Bible,  and  the  opposer  of  abolitionists. 

"J.    C.    POSTELL. 

"  Orangeburgh,  July  2Jst,  1836." 

Rev.  Geo.  W.  Langhorne,  of  North  Carolina,  to  the  editor 
of  Zion's  Watchman :  — 

"  I,  sir,  would  as  soon  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  a  banditti,  as 
numbered  with  Arthur  Tappan  and  his  wanton  coadjutors. 
Nothing  is  more  appalling  to  my  feelings  as  a  man,  contrary  to 
my  principles  as  a  Christian,  and  repugnant  to  my  soul  as  a  minis- 
ter, than  the  insidious  proceedings  of  such  men. 

"  If  you  have  not  resigned  your  credentials  as  a  minister  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  I  really  think  that,  as  an  honest 
man,  you  should  now  do  it.  In  your  ordination  vows  you  sol- 
emnly promised  to  be  obedient  to  those  who  have  rule  over  you; 
and  since  they  (the  General  Conference)  have  spoken,  and  that 
distinctly,  too,  on  this  subject,  and  disapprobate  your  conduct,  1 
conceive  you  are  bound  to  submit  to  their  authority,  or  leave  the 
church." 

Rev.  Mr.  Crawder,  of  Virginia,  in  the  General  Conference, 
1840:  — 

"  Slavery  is  not  only  countenanced,  permitted,  and  regulated, 
by  the  Bible,  but  it  was  positively  instituted  by  GOD  HIMSELF  — 
he  has  in  so  many  words  ENJOINED  it." 

Such  is  the  present  ecclesiastical  position  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  in  relation  to  the  system  which  John  Wes- 
ley denounced  as  the  sum  of  all  villanies,  and  which,  as  I  have 
clearly  shown,  no  person  can  support  or  countenance,  directly 
or  indirectly,  without  thereby  becoming  a  felon  of  the  most 
odious  and  criminal  character.  "Nearly  one  half  of  the  min- 
isters," in  eleven  states  of  the  Union,  "  hold  slaves  and  trade 
in  them  "  —  that  is,  they  claim  their  neighbors'  wives,  rob  cra- 
dles and  trundle-beds,  and  sell  their  own  church  members  for 
purposes  of  prostitution,  (if  the  purchaser  choose  to  put  them 


40 

to  that  use ;)  and  the  church,  meanwhile,  through  its  highest 
tribunal,  by  a  vote  of  120  to  14,  declares  itself  '  decidedly  op- 
posed" to  the  abolition  of  this  monstrous  wickedness,  and 
asserts  that  it  has  "  no  right,  tvish,  or  intention,  to  interfere  " 
with  it ;  and  one  of  the  six  bishops,  and  he  a  Northern  man, 
the  Rev.  Elijah  Redding,  D.  D.,  tells  us  that  "  the  right  to  hold 
slaves  "  — that  is,  to  claim  his  neighbor's  wife  and  daughters 
as  his  property,  and  to  use  them  as  such  —  "is  founded  on  the 
rule,  «  Therefore  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  others 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them ! ! "  Is  not  this  church, 
then,  a  "  Brotherhood  of  Thieves  "  ?  Is  it  not,  rather,  a  con- 
clave of  incarnate  Jiends,  whose  influence  is  as  much  more  cor- 
rupting to  the  morals  of  the  community  than  the  influence  of 
the  theatre,  as  its  doctrines  are  more  damnabk  ?  For  one, 
much  as  I  deprecate  the  erection  of  a  theatre,  I  deprecate  the 
erection  of  a  Methodist  meeting-house  more .'  The  stage  does 
not  teach  my  neighbors  that  the  New  Testament  allows  them 
to  enslave  my  wife  and  children ;  but  the  Methodist  pulpit 
does  !  I  know  not  in  what  light  you  view  this  subject,  but  for 
myself,  I  regard  every  intelligent  communicant  in  the  Meth- 
odist church  as  more  guilty  and  infamous,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
than  the  common  prostitute,  the  pickpocket,  or  the  assassin ; 
and  I  cannot  associate  with  him  on  any  other  terms  of  inter- 
course than  those  which  1  stipulate  for  these  infamous  char- 
acters. 

But  the  Methodists  are  not  sinners  above  all  the  sects  in  the 
land.  All  the  other  large  denominations  are  of  a  kindred 
character,  as  will  appear  from  an  examination  of  their  eccle- 
siastical history,  and  the  sentiments  of  their  most  distinguished 
ministers.  They  all  legalize  slavery,  and  most  of  them,  as  we 
shall  see,  own  slaves,  and  publicly  vindicate  the  system,  or 
are  silent  as  to  its  wrongs.  This  is  specially  true  of 


THE   PRESBYTERIAN   AND   CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCH. 

The  Presbyterians  and  orthodox  Congregationalists  of  the 
United  States,  numbering  in  all  about  600,000  communicants, 
are  virtually  one  sect,  or  denomination  ;  their  only  difference 
being  about  church  government.  On  all  other  points  of  reli- 
gious faith,  slavery  not  excepted,  they  are  agreed.  They  are 
all  in  Christian  fellowship  with  each  other;  and  are  con- 
nected together  by  Associations,  Presbyteries,  Synods,  and 


41 

General  Assemblies.  They  are  united  in  their  missionary 
operations ;  their  ministers  intermingle  on  exchanges  and  pa- 
rochial settlements ;  their  communion  table  is  common ;  and 
they  recommend  and  receive  members  from  one  to  the  other 
without  any  change  of  faith.  And  to  make  the  fellowship 
more  complete,  and  the  connection  more  perfect,  the  General 
Associations  of  the  Congregationalists,  in  all  the  New  England 
States,  where  the  Congregational  church  is  mainly  located, 
send  delegates  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  and  receive  their  delegates  in  return.  In  1838,  the 
General  Assembly  separated  on  some  unimportant  points  of 
doctrine  ;  but  the  denomination  is  still  one  and  undivided;  and 
the  separation  was  nothing  more  than  the  cleaving  of  air, 
which  closes  immediately  behind  the  intersecting  instrument. 
Hence,  connected  as  all  the  local  churches  are  with  the  gen- 
eral body,  no  person  can  unite  with  any  one  of  them  without 
being  thereby  brought  into  fellowship  with  the  whole  ;  for 
there  is  no  local  church  in  the  country,  of  which  1  have  any 
knowledge,  which  is  disconnected  from  the  main  body  ;  and 
it  is  not  material  whether  we  fellowship  slave-claimants  di- 
rectly, or  fellowship  those  who  are  in  fellowship  with  them. 
In  either  case,  the  chain  which  binds  us  to  slavery  being 
unbroken,  we  partake  of  its  sins,  and  must  receive  of  its 
plagues. 

Now,  there  are  in  this  church  a  large  number  of  clergymen, 
men  of  great  influence  with  the  denomination,  who  gain  their 
subsistence  by  preaching  sermons,  making  prayers,and  stealing 
babes  !  These  "  spiritual  guides  "  of  the  Presbyterian  church, 
like  their  brethren  of  the  Methodist  church,  claim  their 
neighbors'  wives  and  daughters,  and  appropriate  them  to  their 
own  use.  They  tell  us  that  these  women  are  theirs  —  that 
they  own  them.  Of  course,  if  they  own  them,  they  can  do 
what  they  ivill  with  their  own  ;  and  what  a  clergyman  would 
be  likely  to  do  with  his  own  women  —  women  over  whom 
he  not  only  possessed  unlimited  power,  but  to  whose  bodies 
he  had  a  divine  right  —  those  can  best  judge  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  records  of  that  department  of  the  Female 
Moral  Reform  Society,  which  treats  of  the  licentiousness  of 
the  clergy.  And  what  is  done  by  the  leaders  is  also  done 
by  the  people.  Thousands  of  the  lay  members  of  this  church 
are  slave-breeders,  whose  chief  or  only  source  of  income  is 
the  sale  of  human  flesh  !  Their  plantations  are  stocked  with 
women,  members,  in  part,  of  the  same  church,  whom  they  term 
BREEDERS  ;  and  not  a  few  of  them  are  engaged  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale,  in  raising  boys  and  girls  from  these  breeders,  for 


42 

the  rice  and  cotton  fields  of  the  far  South  ;  as  the  Berkshire 
farmers  raise  cattle  and  horses  for  Brighton  market! ! 

But  the  clergy  of  this  genteel  and  influential  sect  have  not 
been  content  with  merely  upholding  slavery  by  the  force  of 
then1  example.  Like  faithful  sentinels  on  its  watchtowers, 
they  were  the  first  to  descry  the  dangers  of  abolition  ;  and 
from  the  commencement  of  the  anti-slavery  enterprise,  they 
have  been  among  the  most  active  and  energetic  in  arousing 
the  people  to  determined  and  obstinate  resistance.  No  sect 
in  the  land  has  done  more  to  perpetuate  slavery  than  this.  Its 
deliberate  and  cold-blooded  sanction  and  approval  of  the  slave 
system,  and  its  murderous  appeal  to  the  mob  to  put  a  stop  to 
the  progress  of  free  principles  by  Lynch  law,  is  enough  to 
make  one's  blood  curdle  in  his  veins !  —  But  hear  them  in 
their  own  words,  recollecting,  meanwhile,  that  they  claim  to 
be  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  that  before  them  lie  2,700,000 
wretched  slaves,  imploring  relief  at  their  hands.  Here  is 
their  answer  to  the  demand  of  crushed  humanity  for  the 
recognition  of  its  inalienable  rights. 

Charleston  Union  Presbytery:  — 
Resolved,  — 

"  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  Presbytery,  the  holding  of  slaves, 
so  far  from  being  a  sin  in  the  sight  of  God,  is  nowhere  condemned 
in  his  holy  word  —  that  it  is  in  accordance  with  the  example,  or 
consistent  with  the  precepts,  of  patriarchs,  apostles,  and  prophets, 
and  that  it  is  compatible  with  the  most  fraternal  regard  to  the 
best  good  of  those  servants  whom  God  may  have  committed  to 
our  charge." 

Harmony  Presbytery,  South  Carolina :  — 
Resolved  unanimously,  — 

"1.  That,  as  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  is  not  of  this  world,  his 
church,  as  such,  has  no  right  to  abolish,  alter,  or  affect,  any  insti- 
tution or  ordinance  of  men,  political  and  civil  merely,  &c. 

"  2.  That  slavery  has  existed  from  the  days  of  those  good  old 
slaveholders  and  patriarchs,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  (who 
are  now  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,)  to  the  time  when  the  apostle 
Paul  sent  a  runaway  slave  home  to  his  master  Philemon,  and 
wrote  a  Christian  and  fraternal  epistle  to  this  slaveholder,  which 
we  find  still  stands  in  the  canons  of  the  Scriptures;  and  that 
slavery  has  existed  ever  since  the  days  of  the  apostle,  and  does 
now  exist. 

"  3.  That,  as  the  relative  duties  of  master  and  slave  are  taught  in 
the  Scriptures,  in  the  same  manner  as  those  of  parent  and  child, 
and  husband  and  wife,  the  existence  of  slavery  itself  is  not  opposed 
to  the  will  of  God;  and  whosoever  has  a  conscience  too  tender 
to  recognize  this  relation  as  lawful  is  '  righteous  overmuch,'  is 
'  wise  above  what  is  written,'  and  has  submitted  his  neck  to  the 


43 

joke  of  man,  sacrificed  his  Christian  liberty  of  conscience,  and 
leaves  the  infallible  word  of  God  for  the  fancies  and  doctrines  of 
men." 

Synod  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia :  — 
Resolved  unanimously  —  [Dec.  1834,] 

"  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Synod,  Abolition  Societies  and 
the  principles  on  which  they  are  founded,  in  the  United  States, 
are  inconsistent  with  the  interests  of  the  slaves.,  the  rights  of  the 
holders,  and  the  great  principles  of  our  political  institutions." 

Rev.  Robert  N.  Anderson,  Virginia :  — 

"  To  the  Sessions  of  the    Presbyterian    Congregations   within   the 
Bounds  of  West  Hanover  Presbytery:  — 

"  At  the  approaching  stated  meeting  of  our  Presbytery,  I  design 
to  offer  a  preamble  and  a  string  of  resolutions  on  the  subject  of  the 
use  of  wine  in  the  Lord's  supper  ;  and  also  a  preamble  and  a  string 
of  resolutions  on  the  subject  of  the  treasonable  and  abominably  wicked 
interference  of  the  Northern  and  Eastern  fanatics  with  our  political 
and  civil  rights,  our  property,  and  our  domestic  concerns.  I  myself, 
dear  brethren,  have  no  reason  to  doubt  the  perfect  soundness  of  all 
my  clerical  brethren  of  this  Presbytery  on  these  subjects.  But  you 
are  fully  aware  that  the  present  state  of  things  loudly  and  imperi- 
ously calls  for  an  expression  of  their  views  on  these  subjects,  and 
particularly  on  abolitionism,  by  all  church  bodies  at  the  South. 
You  are  aware  also,  that  our  clergy,  whether  with  or  without  rea- 
son, are  more  suspected  by  the  public  than  are  the  clergy  of  other 
denominations.  Now,  dear  Christian  brethren,  I  humbly  express  it 
as  my  earnest  wish,  that  you  quit  yourselves  like  men  ;  that  every 
congregation  send  up  both  to  the  Presbytery  and  to  the  Synod  the 
ablest  elder  it  has.  The  times  —  rely  upon  it — the  times  demand 
it.  If  there  be  any  stray  goat  of  a  minister  among  us,  tainted  with 
the  blood-hound  principles  of  abolitionism,  let  him  be  ferreted  out, 
silenced,  excommunicated,  and  left  to  the  public  to  dispose  of  him  in 
other  respects. 

"  Your  affectionate  brother  in  the  Lord, 

"ROBERT  N.  ANDERSON." 

Rev.  Thomas  S.  Witherspoon,  of  Alabama,  to  the  editor 
of  the  Emancipator :  — 

"  I  draw  my  warrant  from  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  to  hold  the  slave  in  bondage.  The  principle  of  hold- 
ing the  heathen  in  bondage  is  recognized  by  God."  ' 
"When  the  tardy  process  of  the  law  is  too  long  in  redressing  our 
grievances,  we  of  the  South  have  adopted  the  summary  remedy 
of  Judge  Lynch  —  and  really  I  think  it  one  of  the  most  whole- 
some and  salutary  remedies  for  the  malady  of  Northern  fanaticism 
that  can  be  applied,  and  no  doubt  my  worthy  friend,  the  editor  of 
the  Emancipator  and  Human  Rights,  would  feel  the  better  of  its 
enforcement,  provided  he  had  a  Southern  administrator.  I  go  to 
the  Bible  for  my  warrant  in  all  moral  matters."  **»**• 


44 

"  Let  your  emissaries  dare  venture  to  cross  the  Potomac,  and  I  can- 
not promise  you  that  their  fate  will  be  less  than  Hainan's.  Then 
beware  how  you  goad  an  insulted  but  magnanimous  people  to 
deeds  of  desperation." 

Rev.  Wm.  S.  Plummer,  D.  D.,  Virginia:  — 
[To  the  Chairman  of  a  Committee  of  Correspondence  ap- 
pointed by  the  citizens  of  Richmond,  to  oppose  the  progress 
of  anti-slavery  principles  at  the  South.] 

"  1  have  carefully  watched  this  matter  from  its  earliest  existence, 
and  every  thing  1  have  seen  and  heard  of  its  character,  both  from 
its  patrons  and  its  enemies,  has  confirmed  me,  beyond  repentance, 
in  the  belief  that,  let  the  character  of  abolitionists  be  what  it  may 
in  the  sight  of  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  this  is  the  most  meddle- 
some, imprudent,  reckless,  fierce,  and  wicked  excitement  I  ever 
saw.  1  am  willing  at  any  time  that  the  world  should  know  that 
such  are  my  views.  A  few  things  are  perfectly  clear  to  my  mind. 

"  1st.  The  more  speedy,  united,  firm,  and  solemnly  resolute,  but 
temperate,  the  expression  of  public  opinion  on  this  subject  in  the 
whole  South,  the  better  it  will  be  for  the  North,  for  slaveholders, 
and  generally  for  the  slaves. 

"  Sid.  If  abolitionists  will  set  the  country  in  a  blaze,  it  is  but 
fair  that  they  should  have  the  first  warming  at  the  fire." 

"  Lastly.  Abolitionists  are,  like  infidels,  wholly  unaddicted  to 
martyrdom  for  opinion's  sake.  Let  them  understand  that  they 
will  be  caught,  if  they  come  among  us,  and  they  will  take  good 
heed  to  keep  out  of  our  way.  There  is  not  one  man  among  them 
who  has  any  more  idea  of  shedding  his  blood  in  this  cause,  than  he 
has  of  making  war  on  the  Grand  Turk.  Their  universal  spirit  is 
to  stand  off,  and  growl  and  bark  at  men  and  institutions,  without 
daring  to  march  for  one  moment  into  their  midst,  and  attack  them 
with  apostolic  fearlessness. 

"With  sentiments  of  great  respect,  I  remain  yours,  &.c. 

"WM.  S.  PLUMMER." 

I  know  of  no  language  in  the  vocabulary  which  is  adequate 
to  express  the  horror  and  abhorrence  which  must  be  felt  by 
every  untainted  mind  towards  the  authors  of  the  atrocious 
sentiments  contained  in  the  three  last  documents,  and  also  to- 
wards the  church  and  denomination  that  will  sustain  them, 
and  palm  them  upon  the  world  as  ministers  of  Christ.  What! 
has  it  come  to  this,  that  pastors  of  churches  and  doctors  of 
divinity  can  not  only  steal  their  neighbors'  ivives  without  fear 
or  reproach,  but  openly  advocate  LYNCH  LAW,  and  that,  too, 
in  its  most  frightful  shape,  for  the  suppression  of  free  discus- 
sion ?  William  S.  Plummer  is  not  only  a  doctor  of  divinity, 
but  one  of  the  most  popular  ministers  in  all  the  South.  He  is 
at  the  head  of  the  New  School  in  the  Presbyterian  church, 


45 

and  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  And  yet 
his  letter  is  a  direct  appeal  to  the  mob  to  BORN  us  ALIVE,  if 
we  go  among  them !  He  calls  upou  the  citizens  of  Richmond 
to  react  the  Vickeburg  tragedy!  — to  "catch"  the  abolition- 
ists, and  give  them  a  "  warming  ai  the  fire,  I  "  And  this  call 
comes  to  them  from  the  pulpit,  endorsed  by  every  Presby- 
terian and  Congregationalist  in  the  land,  for  they  all  recognize 
William  S.  Plummer  as  a  Christian  minister!  These  three 
men  are  execrable  murderers,  if  Christ's  definition  of  murder  be 
the  true  one  ;  and  yet  they  are  of  no  doubtful  standing  in  the 
Presbyterian  church!  They  are  the  men  whose  delegates 
are  annually  received  by  every  Congregational  Association 
in  New  England ! 

Rev.  Moses  Stuart,  professor  in  Andover  Theological 
Seminary,  Massachusetts :  — 

[To  Rev.  Wilbur  Fisk,  D.  D.,  president  of  the  Wesleyan 
University,  Connecticut.] 

"Andaver,  \Qth  April,  1837. 

"  Rev.  and  dear  sir,  —  Yours  is  before  me.  A  sickness  of  three 
months'  standing,  (typhus  fever,)  in  which  I  have  just  escaped 
death,  and  which  still  confines  me  to  my  house,  renders  it  impos- 
sible for  me  to  answer  your  letter  at  large. 

"  1 .  The  precepts  of  the  New  Testament  respecting  the  demeanor 
of  slaves  and  their  masters,  beyond  all  question,  recognize  the  ex- 
istence of  slavery.  The  masters  are  in  part  "  believing  masters," 
so  that  a  precept  to  them,  how  they  are  to  behave  as  masters,  rec- 
ognizes that  the  relation  may  still  exist,  saivafide  et  salva  ccclesia, 
(without  violating  the  Christian  faith  or  the  church.)  Otherwise, 
Paul  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  cut  the  band  asunder  at  once.  He 
could  not  lawfully  and  properly  temporize  with  a  malum  in  se, 
(that  which  is  in  itself  sin.) 

"  If  any  one  doubts,  let  him  take  the  case  of  Paul's  sending 
Onesimus  back  to  Philemon,  with  an  apology  for  his  running 
away,  and  sending  him  back  to  be  his  servant  for  life.  The  rela- 
tion did  exist,  may  exist.  The  abuse  of  it  is  the  essential  and 
fundamental  wrong.  Not  that  the  theory  of  slavery  is  in  itself 
right.  No;  "Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  "Do  unto  others 
that  which  ye  would  that  others  should  do  unto  you,"  decide 
against  this.  But  the  relation  once  constituted  and  continued,  is 
not  such  a  malum  in  se  as  calls  for  immediate  and  violent  disrup- 
tion, at  all  hazard.  So  Paul  did  not  counsel." 

"  After  all  the  spouting  and  vehemence  on  this  subject,  which 
have  been  exhibited,  the  good  old  book  remains  the  same —  [that 
is,  in  favor  of  slavery.]  Paul's  conduct  and  advice  are  still  safe 
guides.  Paul  knew  well  that  Christianity  would  ultimately  tie-  '•' 
stroy  slavery,  as  it  certainly  will.  He  knew,  too,  that  it  would 
destroy  monarchy  and  aristocracy  from  the  earth ;  for  it  is  funda- 


46 

mentally  a  doctrine  of  true  liberty  and  equality.     Yet  Paul  did  not 
expect  slavery  and  monarchy  to  be  ousted    in  a  day ;  and  gave 
precepts  to  Christians  respecting  their  demeanor  ad  interim. 
"  With  sincere  and  paternal  regard, 

"  Your  friend  and  brother, 

"  M.  STUART." 

Rev.  Wilbur  Fisk,  D.  D.,  to  a  friend:  — 
'{  This,  sir,  [referring  to  the  preceding  letter,]  is  doctrine  that 
will  stand,  because  it  is  Bible  doctrine.  The  abolitionists,  then, 
are  on  the  wrong  course.  They  have  travelled  out  of  the  record  ; 
and  if  they  would  succeed,  they  must  take  a  different  position,  and 
approach  the  subject  in  a  different  manner. 

"  Respectfully  yours,  W.  FISK." 

There  are  several  things  in  this  letter,  and  the  endorsement 
by  Dr.  Fisk,  which  deserve  particular  attention. 

1.  The  writer  and  the  endorser,  at  the  time  of  its  publica- 
tion, were  both  engaged  in  fitting  young  men  for  the  minis- 
try, and  the  former  still  occupies  the  same  responsible  station. 

2.  They  were  elected  to  their  respective  offices  by  New 
England  ministers ;  and  no  objection  has  ever  been  made  to 
their  retaining  their  offices  on  account  of  their  opinions  on 
slavery.     They  may,  therefore,  be  considered  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  New  England  clergy,  on  the   question  of 
slavery. 

3.  The  opinions  of  no  clergymen  in  the   country  have 
greater  weight  iti  their  respective  sects  than  those  of  Pro- 
fessor Stuart  and  President  Fisk. 

4.  Both  are  united   in  opposing  emancipation ;  and   they 
are  equally  responsible  for  all  the  sentiments  and  statements 
contained  in  this  letter. 

5.  The  letter  is  as  full  and  complete  a  recognition  of  sla- 
very as  any  slave-claimant  in  the  land  could  desire.     It  ex- 
pressly says  "  that  the  relation  may  exist ; "  that  is,  one  man 
may  claim  and  use  another's  wife  and  children  as  his  prop- 
erty "  without  violating  the  Christian  faith  or  the  church ! " 
"Slavery,"  it  adds,  "did  exist,  may  exist!     The  abuse  of  it  is 
the  essential  and  fundamental  wrong !  "     That  is,  to  convert  a 
man  into  an  article  of  merchandise,  and  exercise  unlimited 
power  over  him,  is  not  sinful ;  but  whipping  him  unneces- 
sarily may  be.     This  is  the  doctrine  of  thefletter. 

6.  To  maintain  this  doctrine,  the  letter  states  a  gross  and 
palpable  falsehood.     It  says  that  Paul  sent  Onesimus  back  to 
Philemon  "to  be  his  servant  for  life."     Nothing  could  be  far- 
ther from  the  truth  than  this  statement     Had  the  reverend 
authors  of  it  said  that  Jesus  himself  was  a  slaveholder,  they 
would  not  have  been  guilty  of  a  greater  libel  or  more  horri- 


47 

ble  blasphemy!  Paul's  language  to  Philemon  cannot  possibly 
be  misunderstood.  He  calls  Onesimus  his  son;  and  tells 
Philemon  to  receive  him  as  his  "oion  bowels ;"  that  is,  as  his 
own  offspring.  He  tells  him  expressly  to  receive  him  "  not 
now  as  a  servant,  but  above  a  servant,  a  brother  beloved,  both  in 
the  Jiesh  and  in  the  Lord"  He  tells  him  still  further,  "re- 
ceive him  as  myself; "  that  is,  as  you  would  the  great  Apostle 
to  the  Gentiles ;  and  he  adds,  "  if  he  oweth  thee  aught,  put 
that  on  my  account;  1  will  repay  it."  And  he  remarks,  in 
apology  for  sending  back  Onesimus,  that  he  had  perfect  con- 
fidence in  Philemon,  that  he  would  do  even  more  for  him 
than  he  had  asked.  And  yet  with  this  plain  and  unequivocal 
statement  before  them,  these  distinguished  biblical  scholars 
have  the  audacity  to  tell  us,  that  Paul  sent  Onesimus  back  "to 
be  a  servant  for  life  ! "  Alas  !  to  what  lengths  slave-claimants 
and  their  abettors  will  go,  in  supporting  their  horrible  system  ! 
They  will  beat,  imprison,  and  burn  abolitionists,  and  lie,  and 
blaspheme  the  God  of  heaven,  in  its  defence !  We  have  here, 
in  immediate  connection,  five  clergymen,  three  of  them  pub- 
licly advocating  Lynch  law;  and  the  remaining  two  publish- 
ing to  the  world  the  most  glaring  and  libellous  falsehoods,  for 
the  purpose  of  destroying  the  remnant  of  sympathy  which  is 
still  felt  for  the  helpless  victims  of  their  power ! 


THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLIES,  OLD  AND  NEW 
SCHOOL. 

The  course  pursued  by  these  bodies  on  the  subject  of  slave- 
ry is  a  facsimile  of  that  adopted  by  the  United  States  Congress. 
They  have  never  taken  any  action  on  the  subject  in  favor  of 
emancipation,  and  have  generally  succeeded  in  preventing  a 
full  discussion  of  it;  although  it  h.-is  at  times  crept  in,  and 
caused  them  no  little  trouble.  This,  however,  is  nothing  more 
than  was  to  be  expected  of  bodies  composed  mainly  of  man- 
stealers,  and  those  who  legalize  manstealing.  Indeed,  eccle- 
siastical action  against  slavery,  while  their  character  remains 
what  it  now  is,  is  not  to  be  desired. 

The  first  thing  which  they  can  do  for  the  slave,  is  to  "re- 
pent and  be  converted,"  and  become  abolitionists  indeed. 
Till  then,  the  adoption  of  resolutions  against  slavery  would 
only  render  them  more  dangerous  arid  formidable  enemies  of 
the  cause  of  freedom,  since  it  would  enable  them  the  more 
effectually  to  deceive  and  beguile  many  of  its  honest,  but  less 
discerning,  friends. 

I  might  go  into  an  extended  narration  of  their  proceedings ; 


48 

but  they  are  too  barren  of  interest  to  warrant  the  trouble. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  while  they  refused,  at  their  late  meet- 
ings, to  pass  any  censure  on  slaveholding,  the  Old  school  pro- 
nounced a  man  guilty  of  "INCEST,"  and  deposed  him  from  the 
ministry,  for  marrying  the  sister  of  his  deceased  wife  ;  and  the 
New  bore  a  formal  and  very  solemn  testimony  against  dan- 
cing, as  a  sin  not  to  be  tolerated  in  the  church  ! 

What  would  be  thought  of  the  Bey  of  Tunis,  or  the  Sultan, 
should  he  enact  a  law  prohibiting  dancing  in  his  dominions, 
as  a  crime,  and  at  the  same  time  allow  one  class  of  his  subjects 
to  enslave  and  imbrute  another,  or  sell  them  in  the  market, — 
as  the  executors  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Furman,  president  of  the 
Baptist  Triennial  Convention,  recently  sold  twenty-seven  native 
Americans  under  the  hammer  of  the  auctioneer,  with  "  his 
theological  library,  two  mules,  one  horse,  and  an  old  wagon  "  ? 
Such  a  demonstration  of  barbarism  in  a  Mahometan  prince 
would  excite  the  astonishment  and  indignation  of  all  Chris- 
tendom. But  in  Christian  "divines"  it  is  all  well  enough. 
At  least,  the  great  body  of  the  people  think  so.  Coming  as 
it  does  from  their  priests,  it  is  to  them  all  gospel. 

But  it  is  due  to  the  Bey  of  Tunis  (the  man  whom  our 
American  clergy  look  upon  as  a  heathen,  and  to  whom  they 
are  now  sending  missionaries)  to  say,  in  this  connection,  that 
he  has  not  only  not  enacted  a  law  against  the  very  harmless 
amusement  of  dancing,  (David  and  the  old  prophets  danced,) 
but  that  he  has  enacted  a  law  prohibiting  slaveholding  in  his 
dominions.  Let  the  clergy  of  our  country  read  the  following 
letter  from  him  to  the  British  residents  at  Gibraltar.  If  it 
does  not  raise  a  blush  upon  their  cheeks,  it  will  be  because 
they  are  lost  to  all  sense  of  shame. 

Translation. 
"  Praise  be  to  God ! 

"  From  the  servant  of  God,  Musheer  Ahmed  Bashaw  Bey,  Sov- 
ereign Prince  of  the  dominions  of  Tunis,  to  the  perfectly  honored 
Englishmen,  united  together  for  the  amelioration  of  the  human 
race.  —  May  God  honor  them  ! 

"  We  have  received  the  letter  which  you  have  forwarded  to  us, 
by  the  honored  and  reverend  Richardson,  congratulating  us  upon 
the  measures*  that  we  have  adopted  for  the  glory  of  mankind,  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  brute  creation. 

"  Your  letter  has  filled  us  with  joy  and  satisfaction. 

"  May  God  aid  us  in  our  efforts  —  may  he  enable  us  to  accom- 
plish the  objects  of  our  hopes  —  and  may  he  accept  this  our  work  ! 

"  May  you  live  continually  under  the  protection  of  God  Al- 
mighty ! 

"  Given  at  Tunis,  26th  day  Elhojah,  1257,  [7th  Feb.  1842.]  " 

*  The  abolition  of  slavery  throughout  his  dominions. 


49 


THE  BAPTIST  CHURCH. 

This  church  contains  nearly  1,000,000  members,  not  far 
from  100,000  of  whom  are  in  slavery,  and  many  of  them  the 
goods  and  chattels  of  their  own  ministers,  and  brethren.  In 
territory,  it  embraces  the  whole  Union  ;  but  its  members  are 
most  numerous  at  the  South.  The  different  congregations  or 
churches  are  independent  of  each  other  in  regard  to  ecclesias- 
tical jurisdiction  ;  but  they  are  all  united  in  one  body,  through 
their  state  and  other  local  associations,  and  a  General  Con- 
vention, which  meets  once  in  three  years,  and  under  whose 
direction  the  foreign  missionary  operations  of  the  church  are 
carried  on.  Besides  the  General  Convention,  there  is  also  a 
Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  and  an  American  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society,  in  which  all  the  different  sections  of  the  coun- 
try are  represented,  and  through  which  the  bond  of  union 
aiid  fellowship  between  the  local  churches  is  strengthened, 
and  rendered  more  apparent  to  the  world. 

The  communion  table  of  each  of  the  churches  is  free 
to  all  the  others,  except  in  a  few  cases  where  resolutions 
have  been  adopted  excluding  slaveholders,  (slave-claimants ;) 
but  these  churches  invite  to  their  table  those  who  commune 
with  Southern  man-stealers,  so  that  their  connection  with 
them  is  unbroken.  No  church  has  yet  severed  itself  from 
the  slaveholding  body ;  and  hence  all  who  are  connected 
with  any  one  of  them,  are  members  of  that  body,  and  re- 
sponsible for  its  acts ;  nor  is  there  any  essential  difference 
in  the  moral  condition  of  the  different  members,  for  the  same 
blood  which  flows  about  the  heart  circulates  into  the  most 
distant  extremity  of  every  limb.  No  church  has  espoused  the 
anti-slavery  cause  in  opposition  to  the  body,  and  demanded 
its  division.  In  this  regard  the  North  arid  South  are  essen- 
tially alike.  In  both,  slavery  finds  warm  friends  and  firm 
supporters.  In  both,  there  are  also  those  who  desire  its  abo- 
lition, but  whose  desires  are  not  sufficiently  strong  to  induce 
them  to  separate  from  a  slaveholding  church.  They  love 
their  church  organization,  corrupt  as  it  is,  better  than  they 
love  the  cause  of  the  bleeding  slave.  Hence  they  cling  to  it, 
and  oppose  the  genuine  abolitionists,  who  go  for  entire  sepa- 
ration from  slave-breeders  and  their  Northern  abettors. 

Soon  after  the  last  Triennial  Convention,  a  Provisional  For- 
eign Mission  Committee  was  appointed  by  the  disaffected 
Baptist  ministers  of  the  New  Organization,  for  the  ostensible 
purpose  of  carrying  on  a  sys'em  of  missionary  operations 
among  the  heathen,  disconnected  with  slavery  ;  but  it  proved 
to  be  a  mere  trick,  of  the  clergy,  to  quiet  the  anti-slavery  agita- 
5 


50 

tion.  All  the  movers  of  it  are,  to  this  day,  in  full  fellowship 
with  the  Baptist  church  or  denomination,  as  a  Christian  body; 
and  that  church  is  made  up,  mainly,  of  slave-claimants  and 
those  who  legalize  slavery.  And  besides,  a  large  sum  of 
money  that  was  raised  from  abolitionists,  on  condition  that  it 
should  not  be  mingled  with  the  blood-stained  contributions 
of  the  South,  was  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  old  man- 
stealing  board,  as  will  appear  from  the  following  resolution, 
unanimously  adopted  at  the  first,  or  an  early  meeting  of  the 
Provisional  Foreign  Mission  Committee  :  — 

"  Whereas  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  have  recently  sustained  a 
heavy  loss  by  the  failure  of  their  banker  at  Calcutta,  and  thus  ap- 
propriated supplies  are  cut  off  from  the  missionaries  in  Asia ;  — 
Therefore, 

"  Resolved,  — 

"  That  the  treasurer  of  this  committee  be  instructed  to  forward, 
as  soon  as  possible,  five  hundred  dollars,  from  funds  now  in  the 
treasury,  to  the  relief  of  the  missionaries,  to  be  expended  under 
the  direction  of  Dr.  Judson  and  Mr.  Vinton. 

"  SIMON  G.  SHIPLEY,   Chairman. 

"  Charles  W.  Dennison,  Recording  Secretary." 

A  second  missionary  association  has  recently  been  formed 
by  a  portion  of  the  same  disaffected  members,  called  the 
American  and  Foreign  Baptist  Missionary  Society ;  but  it  is 
only  another  limb  of  the  old  rnanstealing  Baptist  body.  The 
leaders  in  it  are  still  in  Christian  fellowship  with  Drs.  Sharp, 
Bolles,  and  Wayland,  and  Hon.  Richard  Fletcher,  all  of 
whom  are  officers  of  the  old  board  ;  and  also  with  the  Bap- 
tists generally  of  the  North,  who  legalize  slavery.  The  or- 
ganization of  these  new  missionary  associations  is  only  a 
family  quarrel,  and  not  a  division  of  the  family.  But  the  case 
is  one  which  demands  separation,  like  that  which  took  place 
in  the  Congregational  church  when  a  portion  of  it  embraced 
the  Unitarian  faith. 

The  last  General  Convention  of  the  Baptist  church  was 
characterized  by  base  servility  to  the  slave  power,  and  utter 
recreancy  to  every  principle  of  Christianity.  The  North  and 
South  there  met  together  in  loving  fellowship,  to  advance 
the  kingdom  of  the  Redeemer.  Every  section  of  the  church 
was  fully  represented.  The  slave-claimant,  the  Northern 
apologist  of  slavery,  and  the  New-Organizationist,  were  all 
there,  and  sat  do\yn  together.  They  took  the  object  of  their 
meeting  into  "prayerful  consideration"  and  invoked  the  di- 
vine blessing  upon  it.  But  —  O,  tell  it  not  in  Algiers!  — 
their  first  act  was  to  choose  a  THIEF  to  preside  over  their  de- 


51 

liberations!  Subsequently,  another  thief  was  selected  to 
preach  the  sermon ;  and  yet  another  to  make  the  prayer  pre- 
paratory to  the  election  of  the  Missionary  Board ;  and  he, 
doubtless,  prayed  to  the  God  of  thieves ;  lor  their  next  act 
was  to  drop  the  venerable  Elon  Galusha  from  the  board,  and 
elect  a  fourth  thief  to  fill  his  place!  And  to  close  the  farce, 
they  united  over  the  communion  table  in  singing  the  hymn, 
beginning  with  the  following  lines :  — 

"  Lo,  what  an  entertaining  sight 
Are  brethren  who  agree  !  " 

Such  was  the  character  of  the  last  Triennial  Convention. 
And  yet  the  New-Organized  Baptist  ministers,  who  had  se- 
parated from  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  because 
women  were  allowed  to  stand  upon  its  platform,  saw  no  occa- 
sion to  withdraw  from  it.  They  could  participate  in  a  Bap- 
tist Convention  whose  president  was  a  manstealing  doctor  of 
divinity  ;  but  they  could  not  remain  in  an  anti-slavery  meet- 
ing, where  women  were  permitted  to  speak.  Alas,  how  true 
it  is  that  a  sectarian  cannot  be  an  honest  man !  —  But  I  am 
consuming  too  much  time  with  my  own  remarks.  I  will  let 
the  Baptists  speak  for  themselves.  They  can  tell  their  own 
story  better  than  I  can  tell  it. 

Rev.  Wm.  H.  Brisbane,  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
American  and  Foreign  Baptist  Missionary  Society  (formerly 
a  slave-owner  ) :  — 

"As  a  body,  the  Baptists  of  this  country  are  still  united  in  sup- 
porting, directly  or  indirectly,  slavery  and  slave-trading,  and,  by 
consequence,  all  its  terrible  evils.  Baptists  who  have  no  slaves 
themselves  are  in  intimate  communion  with  those  who  have  them. 
A  very  considerable  proportion  of  Baptist  ministers  are  slaveholders, 
and  yet  they  have  free  access  to  the  pulpits  in  almost  every  part 
of  our  common  country  ;  yea,  they  administer,  oftentimes  by  invita- 
tion of  those  who  possess  no  slaves,  the  sacred  elements  of  the 
Lord's  supper.  In  the  Baptist  General  Convention,  for  the  thirty 
years  of  its  organization,  slaveholders  and  non -slaveholders  have 
met  in  common  fellowship.  Its  presidents  have,  for  the  most  part, 
been  slaveholders." 

Rev.  Lucius  Bolles,  D.  D.,  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
American  Baptist  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  :  — 

"  There  is  a  pleasing  degree  of  union  among  the  multiplying- 
thousands  of  Baptists  throughout  the  land.  Brethren  from  all 
parts  of  the  country  meet  in  one  general  convention,  and  coop- 
erate in  sending  the  gospel  to  the  heathen.  Our  Southern  brethren 
are  liberal  and  zealous  in  the  promotion  of  every  holy  enterprise  for 


52 

Xf    fiol-'. "'     •      HJSW    Y'i  J    '•••: 

*/ie  extension  of  the  gospel.     TJiey  are  generally,  loth  ministers  and 
•people,  slaveholders. 

The  Baptist  man-thieves  of  the  South  are  liberal  and  zealous 
in  the  promotion  of  every  HOLY  enterprise,  forsooth ! !  — 
So  says  a  leading  D.  D.  of  the  Baptist  church  of  the  North. 
And  he  tells  us,  further,  that  there  is  a  pleasing  degree  of 
union  between  these  manstealers  and  the  multiplying  thou- 
sands of  Baptists  throughout  the  land!  This  is  doubtless 
true ;  but  to  whom  is  this  union  pleasing  ?  Not,  surely,  to  the 
despairing  slave ;  nor  to  God,  who  can  himself,  of  course,  have 
no  possible  union  with  thieves,  although  they  may  be  very 
good  Baptists  and  Baptist  ministers.  But  it  is  pleasing  to 
the  slave-master,  and  to  the  Baptist  clergy  generally ;  and  it  is 
doubtless  pleasing  to  their  father.  Slavery  is  greatly  strength- 
ened by  it :  and  whatever  strengthens  that  institution,  cannot 
be  otherwise  than  pleasing  to  him. 

Rev.  W.  B.  Johnson,  D.  D.,  of  South  Carolina,  president  of 
the  last  General  Convention  :  — 

"  When,  in  any  country,  slavery  has  become  a  part  of  its  settled 
policy,,  the  inhabitants,  even  Christians,  may  hold  slaves  without 
crime." 

Rev.  Daniel  Sharp,  Massachusetts,  to  Rev.  Otis  Smith : 
"  In  regard  to  church  action  in  the  case,  I  consider  it  both  inex- 
pedient and  unscriptural.  There  were,  undoubtedly,  both  slavehold- 
ers and  slaves  in  the  primitive  churches.  I  therefore,  for  one,  do  not 
feel  myself  at  liberty  to  make  conditions  of  communion  which  neither 
Christ  nor  his  apostles  made.  I  do  not  consider  myself  wiser  or  bet- 
ter than  they  were.  Nor  have  I  yet  made  such  progress  in  knowl- 
edge as  to  believe  that  a  good  end  sanctifies  unjustifiable  means.  I 
believe  that  a  majority  of  the  wisest  and  best  men  at  the  North 
hold  to  these  sentiments.  But  if  I  stood  alone,  here  I  shall  remain 
immovable,  unless  I  gain  some  new  light,  which,  at  my  period  of 
life,  I  do  not  expect.  I  am  yours,  truly, 

"DANIEL  SHARP." 

Rev.  R,  Furman,  D.  D.,  South  Carolina,  to  the  governor  of 
the  state,  1833 :  — 

"  The  right  of  holding  slaves  is  clearly  established  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  both  by  precept  and  example." 

On  the  death  of  Dr.  F.,  which  occurred  soon  after,  among 
the  property  advertised  by  his  executor  to  be  sold  at  public 
auction,  was  "  a  library  of  miscellaneous  character,  chiefly 
theological,  twenty-seven  NEGROES,  some  of  them  very  prime, 
two  mules,  one  horse,  and  an  old  wagon."  Query  —  Were  any 
of  the  Negroes  which  Dr.  Furman  left,  at  his  death,  to  be 


53 

sold  at  auction  with  his  mules  and  horse,  his  own  children  ? 
I  am  much  inclined  to  think  they  were.  For  the  doctor  de- 
rives his  sanction  for  holding  slaves  from  the  "example"  of 
the  patriarchs  ;  and  if  my  memory  serves  me,  they  made  con- 
cubines of  their  handmaids.  I  know  of  no  good  reason  why 
their  example  should  not  serve  in  the  one  case,  as  well  as  in 
the  other.  Nor  will  the  revelations  which  have  been  made 
within  the  past  few  years  warrant  me  in  thinking  that  our 
modern  doctors  of  divinity  would  be  less  likely  to  imitate  the 
example  of  Abraham,  in  the  use  which  he  made  of  his  prop- 
erty, Hagar,  than  in  his  claim  to  her,  as  such.  I  know  nothing 
of  the  private  habits  of  Dr.  Furman,  but  he  was  a  slaveholder, 
and  an  advocate  of  slavery ;  and  I  have  already  shown  that 
every  slaveholder  is  an  adulterer ;  nay,  that  he  is  guilty  of  a 
crime  of  a  much  deeper  dye.  I  should  be  afraid  to  trust  a 
friend  of  mine  in  the  company  of  any  man  who  would  sell, 
or  hold,  her.  or  any  other  woman,  as  a  slave!  Such  a  man  is 
a  libertine  at  heart,  and  has  not  the  least  possible  regard  for 
female  chastity ;  otherwise  he  could  never  consent  to  see, 
much  less  to  hold,  any  of  the  sex  in  the  helpless  and  unpro- 
tected condition  of  a  slave.  It  is  proper  to  add  that  Dr. 
Furman  was  president  of  the  Baptist  General  Convention  a 
short  time  previous  to  his  death. 

The  Charleston  Baptist  Association  (extract  of  an  Ad- 
dress to  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina) :  — 

"  The  question,  it  is  believed,  is  purely  one  of  political  econo- 
my. It  amounts,  in  effect,  to  this  —  Whether  the  operatives  of  a 
country  shall  be  bought  and  sold,  and  themselres  become  property, 
as  in  this  stale;  or  whether  they  shall  be  hirelings,  and  their  labor 
only  become  property,  as  in  some  other  states;  in  other  words, 
whether  an  employer  may  buy  the  whole  time  of  laborers  at  once, 
of  those  who  have  a  right  to  dispose  of  it,  with  a  permanent  re- 
lation of  protection  and  care  over  them,  or  whether  he  shall  be 
restricted  to  buy  it  in  certain  portions  only,  subject  to  their  con- 
trol, and  with  no  such  permanent  relation  of  care  and  protection. 
The  right  of  masters  to  disj>ose  of  the  time  of  their  slaves  has  been 
distinctly  recognized  by  the  Creator  of  all  things,  who  is  surely  at 
liberty  to  vest  the  right  of  property  over  any  object  in  whomsoever 
he  pleases.  That  the  lawful  possessor  should  retain  this  right  at 
will,  is  no  more  against  the  laws  of  society  and  good  morals, 
than  that  he  should  retain  the  personal  endowments  with  which 
his  Creator  has  blessed  him,  or  the  money  and  lands  inherited 
from  his  ancestors,  or  acquired  by  his  industry." 

What  will  the  working  men  and  women  of  the  North  say 
to  this  doctrine  of  the  Baptist  clergy,  that  "  the  operatives  of 
a  country  shall  be  bought  and  sold,  and  themselves  become 


54 

properly  "  ?  At  the  South,  many  of  the  Baptist  brethren  are 
the  property  of  their  priests  :  are  the  Northern  brethren  ready 
to  become  the  property  of  theirs  ?  Dr.  Bolles  and  Dr.  Sharp, 
who  are  now  enjoying  "  a  pleasing  degree  of  union"  with  this 
same  Charleston  Baptist  Association,  would  doubtless  be  glad 
to  own  some  of  them.  They  are  now  nothing  but  "  HIRE- 
LINGS," in  the  estimation  of  the  Charleston  Association : 
would  it  not  suit  as  well,  if  a  slight  change  were  made  in  their 
relations,  so  that,  instead  of  being  "  hirelings?  as  at  present, 
they  should  become  the  property  of  their  employers  ?  I  am 
amazed  that  any  working  man  or  woman  in  the  country  can 
look  upon  the  Baptist  church  with  any  other  feelings  than 
those  of  abhorrence  and  alarm  !  These  ministers  would  sell 
every  soul  of  them  into  slavery,  if  they  had  the  power  to  do 
it ;  for  they  have  no  more  regard  for  their  rights  and  liberty, 
than  they  have  for  those  whom  they  now  hold  in  bondage. 

The  Goslien  Association,  Virginia :  — 
Resolved,  — 

"1.  That  we  consider  our  right  and  title  to  this  property  [slaves] 
altogether  legal  and  bonafide,  and  that  it  is  a  breach  of  the  faith 
pledged  in  the  Federal  Constitution,  for  our  northern  brethren  to 
try,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  to  lessen  the  value  of  this  prop- 
erty, or  impair  our  title  thereto." 

Resolved,  — 

"  2.  That  we  view  [in  the  movements  of  the  abolitionists]  the 
torch  of  the  incendiary,  and  the  dagger  of  the  midnight  assassin, 
loosely  concealed  under  the  specious  garb  of  humanity  and  reli- 
gion, falsely  so  called." 

The  Savannah  River  Baptist  Association,  in  reply  to  the 
question, 

"  Whether,  in  a  case  of  involuntary  separation,  of  such  a  char- 
acter as  to  preclude  all  prospect  of  future  intercourse,  the  parties 
ought  to  be  allowed  to  marry  again," 

Answer,  — 

"  That  such  separation  among  persons  situated  as  our  slaves 
are,  is  civilly  a  separation  by  death,  and  they  believe,  that,  in  the 
sight  of  God,  it  would  be  so  viewed.  To  forbid  second  marriages 
in  such  cases,  would  be  to  expose  the  parties,  not  only  to  stronger 
hardships  and  strong  temptation,  but  to  church  censure,  for  acting 
in  obedience  to  their  masters,  who  cannot  be  expected  to  acquiesce 
in  a  regulation  at  variance  with  justice  to  the  slaves,  and  to  the 
spirit  of  that  command  which  regulates  marriage  among  Chris- 
tians. The  slaves  are  not  free  agents,  and  a  dissolution  by  death  is 
not  more  entirely  without  their  consent,  and  beyond  their  control, 
than  by  such  separation." 


55 

Hung  be  the  heavens  in  sackcloth  ! —  Let  the  sun  hide  his 
face  in  darkness,  as  when  the  infatuated  Jews  nailed  the  Son 
of  God  to  the  cross !  —  and  let  there  be  a  jubilee  in  HELL  !  — 
What  have  we  here  ?  An  ecclesiastical  decision  which  sets 
the  authority  of  Jehovah  at  nought,  and  blots  out  the  heaven- 
ordained  institution  of  marriage  among  2,700,000  of  our  own 
countrymen !  —  the  decree  of  a  council  of  Baptist  clergymen 
in  favor  of  second  marriages,  whilst  both  the  parties  to  the 
original  are  still  living ! !  These  vile  hypocrites  are  not  satis- 
fied with  tearing  asunder  the  loving  pair  whom  God  has  joined 
in  holy  wedlock,  and  forcing  them  to  take  to  their  bosoms 
other  companions  whom  they  cannot  love,  and  should  not,  if 
they  could ;  but  they  must  make  God  accessory  to  the  infer- 
nal deed.  They  gravely  tell  us  that,  he  regards  it  as  "  a  sepa- 
ration by  death,"  and,  of  course,  that  he  will  bold  them  guilt- 
less. This  is  the  religion  of  the  Baptist  church !  These  are 
the  men  with  whom  Dr.  Bolles  assures  us  the  multiplying 
thousands  of  Baptists  throughout  the  country  are  enjoying  a 
pleasing  degree  of  union. 

If  there  be  a  God  in  heaven  who  takes  cognizance  of  the 
actions  of  men,  and  if  there  be  in  reserve  a  place  of  punish- 
ment for  the  guilty,  where  every  one  shall  receive  his  due  re- 
ward, I  think  the  day  of  final  retribution  must  be  a  trying  one 
to  the  Baptist  church.  No  crime  was  ever  perpetrated  by 
depraved  mortals  which,  as  a  body,  they  have  not  sanctioned. 
They  have  wrested  the  sceptre  of  dominion  from  the  hand 
of  Jehovah,  abrogated  his  law,  and  made  themselves  the 
supreme  sovereigns  of  thousands  of  his  children,  whose 
bodies  and  souls  they  have  converted  into  merchandise,  and 
now  offer  for  sale  in  market  with  the  neighing  horse  and 
lowing  ox. 

They  have  annihilated  the  sacred  institution  of  marriage, 
and  legalized  adultery  and  rape  in  their  most  odious  and  hate- 
ful forms,  making  thousands  of  the  female  members  of  their 
own  church  the  BREEDERS  on  then-  plantations,  whose  off- 
spring are  torn  from  them  with  as  little  reluctance  as  the  calf 
is  torn  from  the  cow!  —  Their  crimes  would  put  Atheism  it- 
self to  the  blush.  Did  ever  Thomas  Paine  or  Abner  Knee- 
land  advocate  forced  concubinage  ?  Did  they  ever  contend 
for  man's  right  to  unlimited  power  over  woman  ?  But  this 
is  advocated  by  the  Baptist  church.  Slavery  is  nothing  but  a 
system  of  forced  concubinage  and  adultery !  It  gives  woman 
up  into  the  power  of  her  owner,  to  do  with  her  as  he  pleases ! 
Thousands  of  the  Baptists  of  this  country  claim,  and  exercise, 
this  power  over  the  female  sex ;  and  more  than  nine  tenths  of 


56 

the  remainder  authorize  their  claim  and  assist  them  to  main- 
tain it 

Can  any  woman  in  the  Baptist  church  be  pure  in  heart  ?  I 
think  not,  if  she  possess  sufficient  intelligence  to  understand 
the  nature  of  her  church  relations.  She  is  an  adulteress  at 
heart ;  otherwise  she  could  not  fellowship  a  church  which  had 
annihilated  the  marriage  institution,  and  thrown  a  million  of 
her  sisters  into  the  market  for  purposes  of  prostitution.  By  her 
fellowship  of  slaveholders,  she  shows  that  she  has,  at  heart, 
110  abhorrence  of  an  adulterous  connection  ;  and  if  she  is  her- 
self kept  from  it,  it  is  only  by  the  force  of  external  circum- 
stances. If  Jeremiah  could  say  of  the  Jewish  church  in  his 
day,  that  they  were  "  all  adulterers,"  with  how  much  more 
force  and  propriety  may  this  charge  be  brought  against  the 
Baptist  church,  whose  most  distinguished  ministers  "  have 
given  a  boy  for  a  harlot,  and  sold  a  girl  for  wine,  that  they 
might  drink!  " — nay,  who  have  even  sold  GIRLS  for  wine  for 
their  communion  table. !  !  —  But  I  must  leave  this  painful  picture, 
and  turn  to 

THE   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 

Of  this  church  I  have  little  to  say  ;  for,  from  the  very  na- 
ture of  its  organization,  and  the  character  of  the  elements  of 
which  it  is  composed,  it  is  the  very  last  of  all  the  sects  to  which 
any  cause  of  reform  should  look  for  aid.  From  the  com- 
mencement of  our  enterprise,  it  has  been  an  inveterate  enemy 
of  abolition,  and  has  thrown  its  entire  influence,  as  a  body, 
into  the  scale  of  slavery.  Among  its  members  have  been 
found  a  few  sterling  abolitionists,  but  fewer  probably,  in  pro- 
portion to  its  whole  numbers,  than  in  any  other  denomina- 
tion. I  believe  the  first  instance  of  the  opening  of  its  meeting- 
houses for  anti-slavery  lectures  is  yet  to  be  recorded  ;  and  if, 
in  its  ecclesiastical  capacity,  it  has  done  less  to  sustain  slavery, 
by  positive  action  in  its  favor,  than  some  of  the  other  sects,  it 
has  not  been  for  want  of  love  for  the  system,  but  from  its 
haughty  and  dignified  indifference  to  all  matters  of  general  in- 
terest. Many  of  its  ministers  and  members  are  slave-claim- 
ants, and  nearly  all  of  them  legalize  slavery,  and  strenuously 
oppose  its  abolition  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  in  abu- 
sive treatment  of  people  of  color,  they  have,  if  possible,  ri- 
valled even  the  Methodist  church. 

Some  idea  of  the  spirit  which  pervades  this  body  towards 
that  portion  of  our  countrymen  to  whom  God  has  given  a 
complexion  differing  from  ours,  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  extracts  from  a  recent  work  from  the  pen  of  Judge 


57 

Jay,  himself  a  Churchman,  entitled  "  Caste  and  Slavery  in  the 
American  Church." 

Mr.  Jay  says :  — 

"  In  the  month  of  June,  1839,  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Gen- 
eral Theological  Seminary,  composed  of  the  bishops  and  clerical 
and  lay  delegates  fro;n  tiie  different  states  and  territories,  met  at 
New  York ;  and  their  proceedings  were  subsequently  published  in 
a  pamphlet.  From  the  minutes,  it  appears  that  a  candidate  for 
holy  orders  in  the  diocese  of  New  York,  now  the  Rev.  ALEX- 
ANDER CRUMMELL,  applied  to  them,  by  petition,  to  be  allowed  to 
enter  the  seminary  as  a  student ;  that  the  petition  was  referred  to 
a  committee  consisting  of  the  RIGHT  REV.  BP.  H.  U.  ONDER- 
DONK,  REV.  DRS.  JAMES  MILNOR  and  HUGH  SMITH,  and  WM. 
JOHNSON,  DAVID  B.  OGDEN,  and  EDWARD  A.  NEWTON,  ESQUIRES, 
who,  after  deliberate  consideration,  recommended  a  resolution  of 
rejection,  which,  on  the  motion  of  the  Rev.  FRANCIS  L.  HAWKES, 
D.  D.,  was  adopted;  that  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  DOANE  asked 
leave  to  enter  his  protest  against  the  decision,  and  that  leave  was 
not  granted.  Neither  the  reasons  for  their  decision,  nor  the  dis- 
qualification of  the  candidate,  are  even  intimated  by  the  minutes  ; 
but  it  does  appear,  that  the  right  of  every  candidate  for  orders  to 
enter  the  seminary  was  expressly  guarantied  by  the  constitution, 
which  the  trustees  were  bound  to  obey ;  and  that  this  fact  was 
well  known  to  them,  also  appears  from  an  amendment  proposed 
by  the  bishop  of  New  York,  while  the  matter  was  pending,  to  the 
very  clause  upon  which-they  were  trampling. 

"  The  true  cause  which  led  the  trustees  to  nullify  the  constitution 
and  deny  the  right  of  the  candidate,  and  which  they  were  ashamed 
to  acknowledge,  was,  that  he  was  a  colored  man  ;  and  this  was  the 
only  cause  —  his  diocesan,  Bishop  Onderdonk,  of  New  York,  having 
declared  in  '  The  Churchman,'  (Nov.  4, 1839,)  that  he  explicitly 
stated  to  them,  '  that  if  they  should  think  it  right  and  proper  to 
admit  a  COLORED  MAN  into  the  Seminary,  he  considered  the  appli- 
cant before  them,  one  in  whose  case  it  might  with  great  safety  and 
propriety  be  done.' 

"  The  Rev.  Peter  Williams,  for  many  years  a  respectable  clergy- 
man of  New  York,  was  never  allowed  to  sit  as  a  member  of  the 
Diocesan  Convention,  nor  has  the  Church  of  St.  Philip,  of  which 
he  was  the  pastor,  been  yet  represented  in  that  body.  He  died 
soon  after  the  act  of  the  trustees,  upon  which  we  have  been  re- 
marking, was  exposed  to  the  world  ;  and  to  counteract,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  indignation  it  had  excited,  the  clergy,  in  a  body, 
attended  his  funeral,  and  the  bishop  of  New  York  pronounced  from 
the  pulpit  a  high  eulogium  upon  his  character.  Several  of  the 
clergy  admitted  that  it  was  done  merely  for  effect,  and  one  of  them 
bitterly  remarked  at  the  funeral,  that  the  empty  honors  to  the  life- 
less dust  were  a  poor  atonement  for  the  insults  so  often  offered  to 
the  living  man.  The  Rev.  Mr.  De  Grasse,  another  colored  clergy- 
man of  the  Episcopal  church,  of  fine  talents,  excellent  acquire- 
ments, and  amiable  disposition, —  who,  three  years  previously  to  the 


58 

application  of  Mr.  Crummell,  had  been  excluded  from  the  Semi- 
nary, and  who,  after  a  residence  of  some  years  in  this  city,  sought 
in  the  West  Indies  the  respectful  treatment  and  sympathy  he  could 
not  find  at  home,  and  there  ended  his  early  years  by  a  Christian's 
death,  —  once  said  to  the  writer,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  '  I  feel  that 
the  bishop  and  many  of  the  clergy  are  against  us  —  that  they  do 
not  want  any  colored  clergymen  in  the  church.  I  have  struggled 
against  the  conviction,  but  it  is  impossible  to  resist  it ;  the  proofs  are 
too  strong;  I  experience  it  daily  ;  I  know  it  is  so.' 

"  In  the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  an  express  canon  debars  the 
African  church  from  being  represented  in  the  Convention,  and 
excludes  the  rector  from  a  seat.  Truly  !  a  singular  picture  to  be 
exhibited  by  Christians  meeting  as  a  council  of  the  church ;  but 
the  limits  of  caste  stop  not  here.  Beautifully  says  the  poet  — 

'  Are  we  not  brothers? 
So  man  and  man  should  be  ; 
But  clay  ajid  clay  differs  in  dignity. 
Whose  dust  is  both  alike.' 

"  Since  Shakspeare  wrote,  even  the  dust  has  learned  to  claim 
precedence  over  dust ;  and  Noli  me  tangere  is  daintily  inscribed  upon 
the  mouldering  coffin-lid. 

"  Ay !  this  '  aristocracy  of  color '  is  maintained,  not  only  in 
God's  temples,  but  even  in  that  last  abode  where  all  distinctions 
have  been  supposed  to  disappear.  In  the  very  graveyard  where 
Death  reigns  as  conqueror,  and  worms  revel  on  the  mouldering  re- 
mains of  manliness  and  beauty ;  where  pride,  and  pomp,  and 
power,  have  doffed  their  trappings,  and  have  said  to  corruption, 
Thou  art  my  father,  and  to  the  worm,  Thou  art  my  mother  and  my 
sister;  where  the  voice  of  passion  is  forever  stilled,  and  the  heart 
that  has  ceased  to  beat  is  cold  as  the  marble  beneath  which  it  re- 
poses ; —  even  here,  among  the  tombs,  Prejudice  has  his  dwelling, 
like  the  demoniac  of  old,  and  Caste,  under  the  sanction  of  the 
church,  rears  his  hideous  and  revolting  form.  How  many  similar 
instances  there  may  be,  we  know  not ;  that  we  cite  has  come  under 
our  immediate  notice.  The  vestry  and  wardens  of  an  Episcopal 
church  in  the  diocese  of  New  York,  a  few  years  since,  accepted  a 
deed  for  a  cemetery,  which  was  demised  to  them  upon  the  express 
condition  imbodied  in  the  indenture,  '  that  they  should  never  suffer 
any  colored  person  to  be  buried  in  any  part  of  the  same;'  and  all  the 
subsequent  conveyances  on  the  part  of  the  church,  of  vaults  and 
burial-places,  are  subject  to  the  same  condition." 


THE  UNITARIAN  AND  UNIVERSAL1ST  CHURCHES. 

Whoever  has  bestowed  an  hour's  serious  reflection  on  the 
nature  and  tendency  of  ecclesiastical  institutions,  will  see  that 
these  churches  have  much  less  power  to  harm  any  work  of 
reform,  than  those  sects  which  are  called  evangelical.  From 
the  looseness  of  their  organization,  and  the  anti-Pharisaic 


59 

character  of  their  professions,  their  ecclesiastical  influence  is 
comparatively  limited,  either  for  good  or  for  evil.  Their  in- 
fluence is  more  that  of  the  individual ;  and  in  relation  to 
slavery,  they  stand  much  nearer  the  position  of  non-church- 
communicants,  than  do  the  other  sects.  But  still  they  have 
an  ecclesiastical  existence,  and,  of  course,  some  ecclesiastical 
influence;  and  that  influence,  however  trifling  it  may  have 
been,  has  all  been  given  in  support  of  slavery.  As  a  body, 
they  have  given  the  anti-slavery  cause  no  countenance.  The 
least  that  can  in  truth  be  said  of  them  is,  that,  ecclesiasti- 
cally, they  have  walked  in  the  footsteps  of  the  priest  and 
the  Levite,  straight  by  the  poor,  bleeding  slave,  on  the  other 
side,  or  have  turned  aside  only  to  cast  a  cold  and  heartless 
look  upon  his  wretchedness;  while  in  the  capacity  of  citi- 
zens, they  have  joined  his  oppressors,  and  assisted  in  strip- 
ping him  of  his  rights,  and  plundering  his  domestic  hearth- 
stone. And  as  they  profess  to  be  Christians,  and  members 
of  the  church  of  Christ,  and  at  the  same  time  legalize  slavery 
and  the  slave  trade,  and  also  fellowship  slave-claimants  as 
Christians,  there  is  no  essential  difference  between  them  and 
the  other  sects.  They  are  all  under  the  same  condemnation, 
and  are  alike  the  enemies  of  truth  and  impartial  freedom. 


THE   FREE-WILL  BAPTISTS,  AND  THE    SOCIETY 
OF  FRIENDS. 

These  sects,  like  all  the  others,  when  weighed  in  the  bal- 
ance of  truth,  are  found  wanting.  As  bodies,  they  claim  to  be 
anti-slavery;  but  their  claim  is  like  that  of  the  Pharisee,  who 
thanked  God  that  he  was  not  like  that  publican  who  stood 
by  his  side,  when  at  the  same  time  he  was  the  more  guilty  of 
the  two.  It  is  true  that  they  have  spoken  against  slavery  ;  and 
spoken,  too,  in  strong  terms  of  reprobation  ;  but  it  is  equally 
true,  that  with  both  hands  they  have  upheld  it ;  and  they  now 
stand  before  the  world  in  a  more  reprehensible  light  than  any 
of  the  other  sects.  From  motives  of  self-interest,  or  an  un- 
willingness to  depart  from  a  rule  introduced  by  their  fathers, 
they  admit  no  slave-claimant  to  their  fellowship ;  but  at  the 
same  time,  as  a  body,  they  stand  entirely  aloof  from  the  anti- 
slavery  enterprise,  or  openly  oppose  it.  And  while  sending 
forth  to  the  world  their  resolutions  and  testimonies  against 
slavery,  they  legalize  it,  and  do  whatever  lies  in  their  power 
to  render  it  popular,  and  consequently  permanent,  by  electing 
manstealers  to  fill  the  highest  offices  in  the  government.  At 
the  ballot-box,  no  sect  in  the  land  is  more  notoriously  sub- 
servient to  the  slave  power  than  the  Free- Will  Baptists. 


In  New  Hampshire,  where  they  are  very  numerous,  they  are 
principally  connected  with  the  Democratic  party ;  and  it  was 
chiefly  through  their  instrumentality,  that  that  poor  apology  for 
a  man,  Charles  G.  Atherton,  was  returned  to  Congress,  after 
having  disgraced  himself  and  his  country  by  consenting  to 
be  made  a  cat's  paw  by  Southern  slave-breeders,  to  tear  in 
pieces  the  sacred  right  of  petition  !  It  was  in  their  power  to 
prevent  his  reelection,  and  return  to  Congress  a  thorough- 
going abolitionist  in  his  stead ;  but  he  was  the  man  of  their 
choice!  And  yet,  at  this  very  time,  they  were  passing  flam- 
ing resolutions  against  slavery,  and  making  loud  professions 
of  abolitionism ! 

I  have  said  that  the  American  church  and  clergy,  as  a  body, 
were  PIRATES.  Is  this  charge  true,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
Free-Will  Baptists  and  Quakers  ?  It  is,  if  aiding  and  abetting 
pirates,  and  protecting  them  while  engaged  in  perpetrating 
their  atrocities,  constitutes  one  a  pirate  ;  for  both  of  these 
sects  legalize  and  protect  a  species  of  commerce  in  the  United 
States,  which  they  have  declared  to  be  piracy,  when  carried 
on  upon  the  coast  of  Africa.  Am  I  told  that  they  have  acted 
ignorantly  in  this  matter  ?  My  reply  is,  if  they  are  men  of 
common  sense,  they  must  and  do  know  that  voting  for  slave- 
claimants  and  the  advocates  and  supporters  of  slavery  to  legis- 
late for  the  country,  tends  to  perpetuate  the  bloody  system 
Would  they  vote  for  such  men,  if  their  own  wives  and  chil- 
dren were  in  slavery  ?  So  long  as  they  are  connected  with 
slaveholding  political  parties,  their  resolutions  and  testimonies 
against  slavery  only  serve  to  enhance  their  guilt,  and  aggra- 
vate their  condemnation. 

If  the  government  had  instituted  a  system  of  idol  worship, 
and  a  hundred  oxen  were  daily  offered  in  sacrifice  on  the 
altar  of  some  distinguished  god,  in  the  city  of  Washington,  by 
an  order  of  Congress,  what  would  you  say  of  that  religious 
sect,  who  should  pass  resolves  against  idolatry,  and  at  the  same 
time  vote  for  men  to  represent  them  in  Congress  who  were 
opposed  to  the  abolition  of  these  sacrifices,  and  also  elect  a 
high-priest  of  this  deity  to  fill  the  presidential  chair  ?  But 
such  conduct  would  not  be  more  hypocritical  and  reprehen- 
sible than  the  conduct  of  the  Free-Will  Baptists  and  Friends, 
and  the  other  religious  bodies  which  have  adopted  resolutions 
against  slavery ! 

The  remarks  which  I  have  made  upon  the  Free-Will  Bap- 
tists and  Friends,  will  apply  with  equal  force  to  those  branches 
of  other  sects  which  have  adopted  resolutions  against  slavery. 
This  kind  of  action,  so  long  as  they  stand  connected  with  pro- 
slavery  parties,  either  political  or  ecclesiastical,  only  renders 
their  influence  more  formidable  to  the  anti-slavery  enter- 


61 

prise ;  and  consequently  their  guilt  is  proportionably  increased. 
They  tell   us  that  slavery  is  a  heinous  sin  and   crime,  and 

S;t  act  in  concert  with  those  who  advocate  and  uphold  it ! 
ence,  on  their  own  confession,  they  are  tbe  "  companions  of 
thieves"  and  in  fellowship  with  adulterers.  In  my  general 
charges,  therefore,  against  the  sects,  no  exception  is  required 
in  tkvor  of  those  local  churches  which  claim  to  be  anti-slavery, 
on  the  ground  of  having  adopted  anti-slavery  resolutions, 
while  they  are  still  connected  with  their  respective  sectarian 
denominations,  and  in  Christian  fellowship  with  those  who 
act  in  concert  with  pro-slavery  political  parties.  The  least 
that  can  in  truth  be  said  of  such  churches  is,  that  they  are  the 
LUKEWARM  friends  of  the  slave,  whom  God  will  spew  out  of 
his  mouth. 

1  had  intended  to  speak,  in  this  connection,  of  the  character 
and  tendency  of  our  so-called  benevolent  institutions;  but 
having  already  far  exceeded  the  limits  which  I  originally  pro- 
posed to  myself  in  this  letter,  I  must  pass  them  by  with  the 
single  remark,  that  connected  with  the  Boards  of  most  of  them 
are  more  or  less  slave-claimants,  and  their  treasuries  are  pol- 
luted with  the  price  of  human  blood!  —  and  that  the  money 
which  our  clergy  beg  of  poor  widows  to  send  the  gospel  to 
the  heathen,  goes  into  the  hands  of  such  men  as  Rev.  Wm.  S. 
Plummer,  D.  D.,  the  man  who  called  upon  the  Richmond 
mob  to  "  catch  "  the  abolitionists,  and  give  them  a  "  WARMING 
AT  THE  FIRE  " !  For  the  same  reason,  I  have  also  omitted  to 
notice  several  of  the  smaller  religious  denominations.  I 
would  here  say  of  them,  however,  that  they  are  all  composed 
of  sectarians,  and  not  of  abolitionists;  and  hence  they  belong 
to  the  same  category  with  the  larger  and  more  influential 
sects,  and  should  be  regarded  in  a  similar  light. 

But  I  trust  I  have  already  adduced  abundant  evidence  on 
this  heart-rending  subject,  to  substantiate  my  allegations 
against  the  American  church  and  clergy.  With  this  picture 
before  him,  no  one,  I  think,  will  say  that  I  have  done  them 
injustice.  True,  I  have  brought  against  them  the  most  tre- 
mendous charges!  I  have  denounced  them,  as  a  body,  as 

THIEVES,  ADULTERERS,  MANSTEALERS,  PIRATES,  and  MURDER- 
ERS !  But  who,  in  view  of  the  frightful  and  accumulated 
proof  of  their  guilt  which  I  have  here  presented,  can  deny 
these  charges?  Who,  that  has  a  mind  capable  of  understand- 
ing the  political  and  ecclesiastical  connection  of  the  church 
and  clergy  with  the  slave  system,  as  I  have  here  portrayed  it, 
and  can  comprehend  the  direful  consequences  of  that  con- 
nection, will  dare  to  say  that  God  will  hold  them  guiltless  of 
these  crimes?  Gladly  would  I  believe  them  innocent;  but 
G 


62 

reason,  conscience,  and  my  outraged  sense  of  justice,  all  for- 
bid the  thought. 

I  will  close  this  part  of  my  argument  with  a  few  specimens 
of  the  fruits  of  slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the  midst,  and  under  the 
control,  of  the  religious  influences  of  the  country.  As  your 
eye  glances  over  the  horrible  picture  which  I  am  about  to 
present,  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  the  legitimate  and  inevitable 
result  of  the  system  which  the  church  and  clergy  generally 
not  only  legalize,  but  baptize  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  and 
of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  heart-rending,  in- 
deed, to  see  humanity  thus  mangled  and  bruised ;  but  so  it 
must  ever  be  until  slavery  itself  shall  be  abolished ;  for  it 
cannot  exist  without  the  exercise  of  the  most  horrible  cruelties. 
It  is  only  in  the  presence  of  whips,  and  chains,  and  branding- 
irons,  that  the  slave  will  submit  to  his  degraded  condition. 

The  following  advertisements  are  from  Southern  newspa- 
pers, and  are  only  a  very  few  of  the  many  thousands  of  similar 
ones,  which  blacken  the  columns  of  the  Southern  press. 

"  Committed  to  jail  as  a  runaway,  a  negro  woman  named 
Martha,  17  or  18  years  of  age  —  has  numerous  scars  of  the  whip  on 
her  back."  D.  JUDD,  Jailer,  Davidson  County,  Tenn. 

"  Ten  dollars  reward  for  my  woman  Siby,  very  much  scarred 
about  the  neck  and  ears  by  whipping.'' 

ROBERT  NICOLL,  Mobile,  Ala. 

"  Ran  away,  a  negro  woman,  named  Maria  —  some  scars  on  her 
back,  occasioned  by  the  whip." 

BRYANT  JOHNSON,  Fort  Valley,  Houston  County,  Ga. 

"  Stolen,  a  negro  woman,  named  Celia  —  on  examining  her  back, 
you  will  find  marks  caused  by  the  whip." 

JAMES  T.  DE  JARNETT,  Vernon,  Autauga  County,  Ala. 

"  Lodged  in  jail,  a  mulatto  boy,  having  large  marks  of  the  whip 
on  his  shoulders  and  other  parts  of  his  body." 

MAURICE  Y.  GARCIA,  Sheriff  of  the  County  of  Jefferson,  La. 

"Was  committed,  a  negro  boy,  named  Tom — is  much  marked 
with  the  whip."  R.  J.  BLAND,  Sheriff  of  Claiborne  County,  Miss. 

"  Ran  away,  a  negro  fellow  named  Dick  —  has  many  scars  on  his 
back,  from  being  whipped." 

JAMES  NOE,  Red  River  Landing,  La. 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  slave ;  his  back  is  very  badly 
scarred."  WILLIAM  CRAZE,  Jailer,  Alexandria,  La. 

"  Committed,  a  mulatto  fellow  —  his  back  shows  lasting  impres- 
sions of  the  whip,  and  leaves  no  doubt  of  his  being  A  SLAVE." 

JOHN  A.  ROWLAND,  Jailer,  Lumberton,  N.  C. 


63 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  negro  man  —  his  back  much  marked  by 
the  whip."  J.  K.  ROBERTS,  Sheriff,  Blount  County,  Ala. 

"  Ran  away,  the  negro  slave  named  Jupiter  —  has  afresh  mark 
of  a  cowskin  on  one  of  his  cheeks."  H.  VARILLAT,  N.  O. 

"  Ran  away,  a  negro  man  named  Johnson  —  he  has  a  great  many 
marks  of  the  whip  on  his  back." 

CORNELIUS  D.  TOLIN,  Augusta,  Ga. 

"  Ran  away,  Bill  —  has  several  LARGE  SCARS  on  his  back,  from  a 
severe  whipping  in  early  life." 

JOHN  WATTO.N,  Rockville,  Montgomery  County,  Md. 

"  Ran  away,  a  boy  named  Jim  —  with  the  marks  of  the  whip  on 
the  small  of  the  back,  reaching  round  to  the  flank." 

SAMUEL  STEWART,  Greensboro',  Ala. 

"  Brought  to  jail,  a  negro  man  named  George  —  he  has  a.  great 
many  scars  from  the  lash.' 

S.  B.  MURPHY,  Sheriff,  Wilkinson  County,  Ga. 

"  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  yellow  boy  named  Jim  —  had  on  a 
large  lock  chain  around  his  neck." 

WILLIAM  TOLER,  Sheriff  of  Simpson  County,  Miss. 

"  Ran  away,  a  negro  named  David  -  with  some  iron  hobbles 
around  each  ankle."  "  HASLET  LOFLANO,  Staunton,  Va. 

"  Ran  away,  negress  Caroline  —  had  on  a  collar  with  one  prong 
turned  down."  T.  ENGGY,  New  Orleans. 

"  Ran  away,  a  black  woman,  Betsey  —  had  an  iron  bar  on  her 
right  leg."  JOHN  HENDERSON,  Washington  County,  Mi. 

"  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  negro  named  Ambrose  —  has  a  ring 
of  iron  around  his  neck." 

WILLIAM  DYER,  Sheriff,  Claiborne,  La. 

«'  Ran  away,  a  negro  man  named  Charles  —  had  on  a  drawing 
chain,  fastened  around  his  ankle  with  a  house  lock." 

FRANCIS  DURETT,  Lexington,  Lauderdale  County,  Ala. 

"Ran  away,  the  negro  Manuel,  much  marked  with  irons." 

A.  MURAT,  Baton  Rouge. 

"  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  negro  boy  —  had  on  a  large  neck  iron, 
with  a  huge  pair  of  horns,  and  a  large  bar  or  band  of  iron  on  his 
left  leg."  H.  GRIDLEY,  Sheriff  of  Adams  County,  Mi. 

"  Ran  away,  the  negro  George  —  he  had  on  his  neck  an  iron  col- 
lar, the  branches  of  which  had  been  taken  off." 

FERDINAND  LEMOS,  New  Orleans. 

"  Committed  to  jail,  a  man  who  calls  his  name  John  —  he  has  a 
doer  of  iron  on  his  right  foot  which  will,  weigh  four  or  five  pounds." 
B.  W.  HODGES,  Jailer,  Pike  County,  Ala. 


04 

"  Detained  at  the  police  jail,  the  negro  wench  Myra — has  sev- 
eral marks  of  lashing,  and  has  irons  on  her  feet." 

P.  BAYHI,  Captain  of  Police. 

"  Ran  away,  Betsey —  when  she  left  she  had  on  her  neck  an  iron 
collar."  CHARLES  KERNIN,  Parish  of  Jefferson,  La. 

"  Ran  away,  a  negro  woman  and  two  children  —  a  few  days  before 
she  went  off,  /  burnt  her,  with,  a  /tot  iron,  on  the  left  side  of  her 
face  :  /  tried  to  make  the  letter  M." 

MICAJAH  RICKS,  Nash  County,  N.  C. 

"  Ran  away,  Mary,  a  black  woman  —  has  a  scar  on  her  back  and 
right  arm  near  the  shoulder,  caused  by  a  rifle  ball." 

ASA  B.  METCALF,  Kingston,  Adams  County,  Mi. 

"  Ran  away,  a  negro  man  named  Henry,  his  left  eye  out,  some 
scars  from  a  dirk  on  and  under  his  left  arm,  and  much  scarred  with 
the  whip."  WILLIAM  OVERSTREET,  Benton,  Yazoo  Co.,  Mi. 

"  Ran  away,  Sam  —  he  was  shot  a  short  time  since  through  the 
hand,  and  has  several  shots  in  his  left  arm  and  side." 

O.  W.  LAINS,  Ark. 

"  Ran  away,  my  negro  man  Dennis —  said  negro  has  been  shot  in 
the  left  arm,  between  the  shoulders  and  elbow,  which  has  paralyzed 
the  left  hand."  R.  W.  SIZER,  Mi. 

"  Ran  away,  my  negro  man  named  Simon  —  he  has  been  shot  badly 
in  his  back  and  right  arm."  NICHOLAS  EDMUNDS,  Va. 

"  Ran  away,  a  negro  girl  called  Mary  —  has  a  small  scar  over  her 
eye,  a  good  many  teeth  missing — the  letter  A  is  branded  on  her 
cheek  and  forehead."  J.  P.  ASHFORD,  Adams  County,  Mi. 

"  Committed,  a  negro  man  — is  very  badly  shot  in  the  right  side 
and  right  hand."  S.  B.  MURPHY,  Jailer,  Irvington,  Ga. 

"  Ran  away,  a  negro  man  named  Ned  —  three  of  his  fingers  are 
drawn  into  the  palm  of  his  hand  by  a  cut  —  has  a  scar  on  the  baek 
of  his  neck  nearly  half  round,  done  by  a  knife." 

ISAAC  JOHNSON,  Pulaski  County,  Ga. 

"  Was  committed  to  jail,  a  negro  man  —  says  his  name  is  Josiah  : 
his  back  very  much  scarred  by  the  whip,  and  branded  on  the  thigh 
and  hips,  in  three  or  four  places,  thus,  J.  M.  —  the  rim  of  his  right 
ear  has  been  bit  or  cut  off." 

J.  L.  JOLLEY,  Sheriff  of  Clinton  County,  Mi. 

"  Fifty  dollars'  reward  for  my  fellow  Edward  —  he  has  a  scar  on 
the  corner  of  his  mouth,  two  cuts  on  and  under  his  arm,  and  the 
letter  E  on  his  arm." 

THOMAS  LEDWITH,  Jacksonville,  East  Florida. 

"  Ran  away,  Anthony  —  one  of  his  ears  cut  off,  and  his  left  hand 
cut  with  an  axe."  STEPHEN  M.  JACKSON. 


Co 

"  Ran  away,  Gabriel — has  two  or  three  scars  across  his  neck, 
made  with  a  knife." 

LEMUEL  MILES,  Steen's  Creek,  Rankin  Co.,  Mi. 

"  Ran  away,  my  man  Fountain  —  has  holes  in  his  ears,  a  scar  on 
the  right  side  of  his  forehead  —  has  been  shot  in  the  hind  parts  of 
his  tegs  —  is  marked  on  the  back  with  the  whip." 

ROBERT  BEASLEY,  Macon,  Ga. 

"  TWENTY  DOLLARS  REWARD.  Ran  away  from  the 
subscriber,  on  the  14th  instant,  a  negro  girl  named  Molly.  She  is 
16  or  17  years  of  age,  slim  made,  LATELY  BRANDED  ON  THE  LEFT 

CHEEK,  THUS,  R,  AND    A    PIECE    TAKEN    OFF    OF    HER    EAR   ON    THE 
SAME     SIDE  J     THE    SAME     LETTER     ON     THE     INSIDE    OF    BOTH    HER 

LEGS."  ABNER  Ross,  Fairneld  District,  S.  C. 

The  Wilmington  (North  Carolina)  Advertiser,  of  July  13, 
1838,  contains  the  following  advertisement:  — 

"  RAN  AWAY,  my  negro  man  RICHARD.  A  reward  of  $25  will  be 
paid  for  his  apprehension,  DEAD  or  ALIVE.  Satisfactory  proof 
will  only  be  required  of  his  being  KILLED.  He  has  with  him,  in 
all  probability,  his  wife,  ELIZA,  who  ran  away  from  Col.  Thomp- 
son, now  a  resident  of  Alabama,  about  the  time  he  commenced  his 
journey  to  that  state."  D.  H.  RHODES. 

In  the  "Macon  (Georgia)  Telegraph,"  May  28,  is  the  follow- 
ing:— 

"  About  the  1st  of  March  last,  the  negro  man  RANSOM  left  me 
without  the  least  provocation  whatever.  I  will  give  a  reward  of 
$20  for  said  negro,  if  taken  DEAD  or  ALIVE,  —  and  if  killed  in  any 
attempt,  an  advance  of  $5  will  be  paid."  BRYANT  JOHNSON. 

"  Crawford  Co.,  Ga. 

On  the  28th  of  April,  1836,  a  colored  man,  named  Mcln- 
tosh,  was  seized  by  a  mob,  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  fastened 
to  a  tree  in  the  midst  of  the  city,  in  open  day,  and  burnt  to 
death,  in  presence  of  an  immense  throng  of  citizens,  who  had 
assembled  to  give  their  countenance  to  the  deed.  The  Alton 
(111.)  Telegraph  contains  the  following  notice  of  the  scene : 

"  All  was  silent  as  death  while  the  executioners  were  piling 
wood  around  their  victim.  He  said  not  a  word,  until  feeling  that 
the  flames  had  seized  upon  him.  He  then  uttered  an  awful  howl, 
attempting  to  sing  and  pray,  then  hung  his  head,  and  suffered  in 
silence,  except  in  the  following  instance  :  After  the  flames  had  sur- 
rounded their  prey,  his  eyes  burnt  out  of  his  head,  and  his  mouth 
seemingly  parched  to  a  cinder,  some  one  in  the  crowd,  more  com- 
passionate than  the  rest,  proposed  to  put  an  end  to  his  misery  by 
shooting  him,  when  it  was  replied,  '  that  would  be  of  no  use,  since 
he  was  already  out  of  pain.'  '  No,  no,'  said  the  wretch, '  I  am  not; 


I  am  suffering  as  much  as  ever;  shoot  me,  shoot  me.'  '  No,  no,' 
said  one  of  the  fiends,  who  was  standing  about  the  sacrifice  they 
were  roasting,  '  he  shall  not  be  shot.  /  would  sooner  slacken  the 
Jire,  ifthctt.  would  increase  his  misery  ;  '  and  the  man  who  said  this, 
was,  as  we  understand,  AN  OFFICER  OF  JUSTICE  !  " 

The  following  scene  is  related  by  Rev.  James  A.  Thome, 
son  of  Arthur  Thome,  of  Augusta,  Ky. 

"  In  December  of  1833, 1  landed  at  New  Orleans,  in  the  steamer 

W .  It  was  after  night,  dark  and  rainy.  The  passengers 

were  called  out  of  the  cabin,  from  the  enjoyment  of  a  fire,  which 
the  cold,  damp  atmosphere  rendered  very  comfortable,  by  a  sudden 
shout  of,  '  Catch  him  —  catch  him  —  catch  the  negro.'  Theory 
was  answered  by  a  hundred  voices  — '  Catch  him  —  kill  him ; '  and 
a  rush  from  every  direction  toward  our  boat  indicated  that  the 
object  of  pursuit  was  near.  The  next  moment  we  heard  a  man 
plunge  into  the  river  a  few  paces  above  us.  A  crowd  gathered 
upon  the  shore,  with  lamps,  and  stones,  and  clubs,  still  crying, 
'  Catch  him  —  kill  him —  catch  him  —  shoot  him.' 

"  I  soon  discovered  the  poor  man.  He  had  taken  refuge  under 
the  prow  of  another  boat,  and  was  standing  in  the  water  up  to  his 
waist.  The  angry  vociferation  of  his  pursuers  did  not  intimidate 
him.  He  defied  them  all.  'Don't  you  dare  to  come  near  me, 
or  1  will  sink  you  in  the  river.'  He  was  armed  with  despair. 
For  a  moment  the  mob  was  palsied  by  the  energy  of  his  threaten- 
ings.  They  were  afraid  to  go  to  him  with  a  skiff,  but  a  number  of 
them  went  on  to  the  boat,  and  tried  to  seize  him.  They  threw  a 
noose-rope  down  repeatedly,  that  they  might  pull  him  up  by  the 
neck  !  but  he  planted  his  hand  firmly  against  the  boat,  and  dashed 
the  rope  away  with  his  arms.  One  of  them  took  a  long  bar  of 
wood,  and,  leaning  over  the  prow,  endeavored  to  strike  him  on  the 
head.  The  blow  must  have  shattered  the  skull,  but  it  did  not 
reach  low  enough.  The  monster  raised  up  the  heavy  club  again, 
and  said,  '  Come  out  now,  you  old  rascal,  or  die.'  '  Strike,'  said 
the  negro  ;  '  strike  —  shiver  my  brains  now ;  I  want  to  die  ; '  and 
down  went  the  club  again,  without  striking.  This  was  repeated 
several  times.  The  mob,  seeing  their  efforts  fruitless,  became  more 
enraged,  and  threatened  to  stone  him,  if  he  did  not  surrender  him- 
self into  their  hands.  He  again  defied  them,  and  declared  that  he 
would  drown  himself  in  the  river,  before  they  should  have  him. 
They  then  resorted  to  persuasion,  and  promised  they  would  not 
hurt  him.  Til  die  first,'  was  his  only  reply.  Even  the  furious 
mob  was  awed,  and  for  a  while  stood  dumb. 

"  After  standing  in  the  cold  water  for  an  hour,  the  miserable 
being  began  to  fail.  We  observed  him  gradually  sinking  —  his 
voice  grew  weak  and  tremulous  —  yet  he  continued  to  curse !  In 
the  midst  of  his  oaths  he  uttered  broken  sentences  —  '  I  didn't  steal 
the  meat  —  I  didn't  steal  —  my  master  lives  —  master  —  master 
lives  up  the  river  —  [his  voice  began  to  gurgle  in  his  throat,  and 
he  was  so  chilled  that  his  teeth  chattered  audibly]  —  I  didn't  — 


67 

steal  —  I  didn't  steal  —  my  —  my  master  —  my  —  I  want  to  see 
my  master  —  I  didn't  —  no  —  my  mas  —  you  want  —  you  want  to 
kill  me  —  1  didn't  steal  the  — '  His  last  words  could  just  be  heard 
as  he  sank  under  the  water." 

The  Natchez  Free  Trader  of  June,  1842,  gives  the  follow- 
ing account  of  the  burning  of  a  negro  at  Union  Point,  Miss. 

"  The  body  was  taken  and  chained  to  a  tree  immediately  on  the 
bank  of  the  Mississippi,  on  what  is  called  Union  Point.  Fagots 
were  then  collected,  and  piled  around  him,  to  which  he  appeared 
quite  indifferent.  When  the  work  was  completed,  he  was  asked 
what  he  had  to  say.  He  then  warned  all  to  take  example  by  him, 
and  asked  the  prayers  of  all  around  ;  he  then  called  for  a  drink  of 
water,  which  was  handed  to  him  ;  he  drank  it,  and  said,  '  Now  set 
fire  —  I  am  ready  to  go  in  peace ! '  The  torches  were  lighted  and 
placed  in  the  pile,  which  soon  ignited.  He  watched  unmoved  the 
curling  flame,  that  grew  until  it  began  to  entwine  itself  around  and 
feed  upon  his  body  :  then  he  sent  forth  cries  of  agony  painful  to 
the  ear,  begging  some  one  to  blow  his  brains  out;  at  the  same  time 
surging  with  almost  superhuman  strength,  until  the  staple  with 
which  the  chain  was  fastened  to  the  tree  (not  being  well  secured) 
drew  out,  and  he  leaped  from  the  burning  pile.  At  that  moment 
the  sharp  ringing  of  several  rifles  was  neard:  the  body  of  the 
negro  fell  a  corpse  on  the  ground.  He  was  picked  up  by  some 
two  or  three,  and  again  thrown  into  the  fire  and  consumed  —  not  a 
vestige  remaining  to  show  that  such  a  being  ever  existed." 

"  STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA,  ) 
Lenoir  County."  ) 

"  Whereas  complaint  hath  been  this  day  made  to  us,  two  of  the 
justices  of  the  peace  for  the  said  county,  by  William  D.  Cobb,  of 
Jones  county,  that  two  negro  slaves  belonging  to  him,  named 
BEN  (commonly  known  \>y  the  name  of  Ben  For)  and  RIGDON, 
have  absented  themselves  from  their  said  master's  service,  and  are 
lurking  about  in  the  counties  of  Lenoir  and  Jones,  committing 
acts  of  felony;  —  these  are,  in  the  name  of  the  state,  to  command 
the  said  slaves  forthwith  to  surrender  themselves,  and  turn  home 
to  their  said  master.  And  we  do  hereby  also  require  the  sheriff  of 
said  county  of  Lenoir  to  make  diligent  search  and  pursuit  after 
the  above-mentioned  slaves;  and  them  having  found,  to  apprehend 
and  secure  so  that  they  may  be  conveyed  to  their  said  master,  or 
otherwise  discharged  as  the  law  directs.  And  the  said  sheriff  is 
hereby  empowered  to  raise  and  take  with  him  such  power  of  his 
county  as  he  shall  think  fit  for  the  apprehension  of  said  slaves. 
And  we  do  hereby,  by  virtue  of  an  act  of  the  Assembly  of  this 
state,  concerning  servants  and  slaves,  intimate  and  declare,  if  the 
said  slaves  do  not  surrender  themselves,  and  return  home  to  their 
master  immediately  after  the  publication  of  these  presents,  that 
any  person  may  kill  and  destroy  said  slaves  by  such  means  as  he 
or  they  think  fit,  without  accusation  or  impeachment  of  ami  crime  or 


68 

±ce  for  so  doing,  or  tcithout  incurring  any  penalty  or  forfeiture 
•by. 

"  Given  under  our  hands  and  seals,  this  12th  of  November,  1836- 
B.  COLEMAN,  J.  P.  [Seal.] 
JAS.  JOKES,  J.  P."    [Seal.] 

200  DOLLARS  REWARD.  — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber, 
about  three  years  ago,  a  certain  negro  man  named  Ben,  (com- 
monly known  by  the  name  of  Ben  Fox.)  Also,  one  other  negro, 
by  the  name  of  Rigdon,  who  ran  away  on  the  8th  of  this  month. 

I  will  give  the  reward  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  each  of  the 
above  negroes,  to  be  delivered  to  me  or  confined  in  the  jail  of 
Lenoir  or  Jones  county,  or  for  the  killing  of  them,  so  that  I  can 
see  them.  W.  D.  COBB. 

November  12, 1836. 

I  will  only  add,  in  this  connection,  that  these  atrocious 
outrages  were  mostly  perpetrated  under  the  sanctions  of 
American  law ;  and  in  no  solitary  instance  have  the  perpe- 
trators been  brought  to  condign  punishment.  Indeed,  they 
are  but  the  legitimate  offspring  of  the  slave  system,  and  are 
inseparable  from  it.  And  yet  Prof.  Stuart  tells  us  that  that 
system  "  may  exist,  and  that  too  without  violating  the  Chris- 
tian faith ; "  and  the  Hon.  Edward  Everett,  (a  church  member,) 
once,  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  volunteered  military  aid  in 
its  defence.  "  Sir,"  said  he,  addressing  the  speaker,  "  I  am  no 
soldier.  My  habits  and  education  are  very  unmilitary.  But 
there  is  no  cause  in  which  1  would  sooner  buckle  a  knapsack 
on  my  back,  and  put  a  musket  on  my  shoulder,  than  that  of 
putting  down  a  servile  insurrection  at  the  South.  *  *  * 
Domestic  slavery  is  not,  in  my  judgment,  to  be  set  down  as 
an  immoral  or  irreligious  relation." 

I  have  now  done  with  the  proof  which  I  intend  to  present 
in  support  of  my  first  charge,  and  come  to  the  second,  which 
is,  "That  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  is  more  corrupt 
than  any  house  of  ill-fame  in  the  city  of  New  York."  To  con- 
vince you  of  the  truth  of  this  charge  will  require  no  labored  ar- 
gument. The  case  needs  but  to  be  stated,  to  be  fully  proved. 
Those  dens  of  infamy  in  New  York,  where  the  libertine  re- 
sorts to  satiate  his  depraved  desires,  are  tenanted  by  women 
who  devote  themselves  to  purposes  of  prostitution.  But  are 
these  abandoned  characters  compelled  to  lives  of  infamy  and 
crime  ?  Is  there  for  them  no  escape  from  the  paths  of  vice  ? 
Can  they  not,  on  the  other  hand,  change  their  course,  and  lead 
a  virtuous  life,  whenever  they  choose  to  do  so  ?  But  in  the 
Methodist  church  there  are  50,000  women  who  are  inevitably 
doomed  to  lives  of  prostitution.  With  tliem  there  is  no  alterna- 
tive. They  are  sold  in  market  for  the  domestic  SERAGLIO, — 


69 

they  are  the  "  BREEDERS  "  on  the  plantation,  and  are  com- 
pelled, on  pain  of  cruel  scourging,  and  even  death,  to  submit 
to  their  owners'  wishes,  whatever  they  may  be!  And  yet  this 
church  has  assured  us,  through  its  highest  ecclesiastical  tri- 
bunal, by  a  vote  of  120  to  14,  that  it  has  "no  WISH  or  INTEN- 
TION to  interfere  in  their  civil  and  political  relations!"  It  would 
not  place  them  in  a  situation  where  their  virtue  would  be 
secure  against  the  brutal  marauder,  if  it  could !  The  church, 
as  a  body,  sanctions,  and  great  numbers  of  its  members  perpe- 
trate on  their  slaves,  the  very  crime  which  the  laws  of  your 
state  punish  with  death! 

My  third  charge  is,  "That  the  Southern  ministers  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  are  desirous  of  perpetuating  sla- 
very, for  the  purpose  of  supplying  themselves  with  concubines 
from  among  its  hapless  victims."  From  the  nature  of  the 
case,  the  proof  of  this  allegation  must  necessarily  be  circum- 
stantial. But  it  is  not,  on  that  account,  the  less  satisfactory ; 
for  men  never  act  but  from  motives ;  and  the  actions  are  a 
sure  index  to  the  state  of  the  heart.  The  tree  is  known  by  its 
fruit  In  charging  the  Southern  ministry  with  a  desire  to  per- 
petuate slavery  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  themselves  with 
<-oncubines,  I  do  not  assert  that  this  is  their  only  motive  in 
supporting  it,  but  that  it  is  a  motive ! 

Now,  that  these  men  are  desirous  of  perpetuating  slavery 
there  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt;  for  they  tell  us  plainly  that 
they  have  no  wish  to  see  it  abolished.  They  must,  therefore, 
have  some  motive  in  wishing  to  perpetuate  it.  That  motive, 
surely,  cannot  be  a  sincere  desire  to  spread  the  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  triumphs  of  his  kingdom  ;  nor  can  it  be 
love  of  wealth,  —  that  master-passion  of  the  human  breast,  — 
for  slavery  is  fast  bankrupting  the  whole  South.  Nor  is  it 
found  in  their  love  of  reputation,  nor  yet  in  their  regard  for 
the  quietude  of  domestic  life  ;  for  these  would  both  be  greatly 
enhanced  by  the  abolition  of  slavery.  It  is,  doubtless,  found  in 
part,  however,  in  their  love  of  power;  but  is  this  their  only 
inducement  ?  Is  it  from  a  desire  of  domination  alone  that 
they  sustain  a  system  which  their  founder  denounced  as  the 
"  sum  of  all  villanies,"  and  which  is  fast  filling  the  land  with 
pauperism,  ignorance,  and  crime?  That  surely  cannot  be. 
There  is  a  stronger  motive  in  this  matter  than  the  love  of 
power;  and  that  motive  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  history  of  the 
private  morals  of  our  Northern  clergy.  If  Northern  ministers 
possess  such  strong  predilections  for  adultery  and  concubi- 
nage, as  the  painful  disclosures  of  the  few  past  years  force  us  to 
believe,  hedged  about,  as  they  are,  on  every  side,  with  the  safe- 
guards of  virtue ;  if  they  are  often  willing  to  hazard  the  loss  of 


70 

reputation,  and  even  the  disgrace  and  sufferings  of  incarcera- 
tion in  the  state  penitentiary,  to  gratify  those  predilections,  —  is 
it  not  natural  to  suppose,  nay,  is  it  not  morally  certain,  that  the 
Southern  clergy,  nursed  as  they  have  been  in  the  very  hotbeds 
of  pollution,  would  be  anxious  to  perpetuate  a  system  which 
affords  them  ample  scope  for  indulgence,  without  danger,  or 
even  the  fear  of  disgrace  ?  That  such  is  the  fact,  is  abundantly 
proved  by  the  adoption,  by  the  General  Conference  of  .1840,  of 
the  resolution  denying  to  persons  of  color  "the  right  to  testify 
against  white  persons,  in  cases  of  church  discipline."  Pending 
a  motion  to  reconsider  that  infamous  resolution,  the  strongest 
remonstrances  were  urged  against  it  by  Southern  ministers, 
who  even  went  so  far  as  to  threaten  a  dissolution  of  the  church, 
if  the  resolution  should  be  rescinded.  I  must  give  you  a  speci- 
men of  their  expostulations.  They  betray  a  sensitiveness  and 
warmth  of  feeling,  as  you  will  perceive,  which  no  other  ques- 
tion has  ever  called  forth. 

The  Rev.  William  Winans,  of  Mississippi,  said,  — 
"  He  was  never  more  deeply  impressed  with  the  solemnity  of  his 
situation  —  the  act  of  this  afternoon  will  determine  the  fate  of  our 
beloved  Zion  !  ....  If  you  wrest  from  us  that  resolution, 
you  stab  us  to  the  vitals  !  .  .  .  .  Repeal  that  resolution,  and 
you  pass  the  Rubicon !  Dear  as  union  is,  sir,  there  are  interests  at 
stake  in  this  question  which  are  dearer  than  union  !  Do  not  regard 
us  as  threatening  !  .  .  .  .  But  what  will  become  of  our  be- 
loved Methodism?  The  interests  of  Methodism  throughout  the 
whole  South  are  at  stake  !  " 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Collins,  of , 

"  Admonished  the  Conference,  that  the  moment  they  rescinded 
that  resolution,  they  passed  the  Rubicon.  The  fate  of  the  con- 
nection was  sealed." 

The  Rev.  William  Smith,  of  Virginia, 

"  Agreed  with  the  brother  from  Mississippi,  that  there  were  in- 
terests involved  in  this  question  dearer  than  UNION  itself,  however 
dear  that  might  be.  Southerners  are  not  prepared  to  commit  their 
interests,  much  less  their  consciences,  to  the  holy  keeping  of 
Northern  men.  Conscience  was  involved  in  this  matter,  and  they 
could  not  be  coerced." 

Whence,  I  ask,  is  this  mortal  fear  of  colored  testimony? 
Why  do  the  clergy  see  in  it  a  dagger,  that  will  "  stab  them  to 
the  vitals  "  ?  What  evil  have  they  done,  that  they  would  sooner 
see  the  "UNION  itself"  dissolved,  than  permit  their  sister,  whom 
Christ  has  washed  and  cleansed  in  his  own  blood,  to  give  ut- 
terance to  her  thoughts,  in  an  assembly  of  his  saints  ?  What 
mighty  truth  lies  hid  in  the  bosom  of  the  slave,  that  needs  but 


71 

to  be  revealed  to  explode  the  church  —  "  determine  the  fate 
of  our  beloved  Ziou"  —  and  blast  the  rising  "interests  of 
Methodism,  throughout  the  whole  South  ?  "  But  one  answer 
can  be  given  to  this  question,  and  that  answer  abundantly 
confirms  the  truth  of  my  charge  ! 

I  come  now  to  the  last  charge  in  the  long  catalogue  of  alle- 
gations which  I  have  made  against  the  American  church  and 
clergy.  It  is  this  —  "  That  many  of  our  clergy  are  guilty  of 
enormities  that  would  disgrace  an  Algerine  pirate."  And 
needs  this  allegation  any  further  proof,  after  the  appalling  de- 
velopments which  I  have  already  made  ?  If  so,  I  challenge  a 
comparison  between  the  conduct  of  many  of  the  American 
clergy,  and  the  Algerine  pirate.  Look  on  the  darkest  page  of 
Moorish  history,  and  tell  me,  has  the  Algerine  ever  sold  his 
sister  of  the  same  faith  for  a  "  BREEDER  "  to  "  STOCK  "  the 
plantation  of  her  haughty  proprietor  with  human  cattle,  per- 
chance the  offspring  of  his  own  body?  Has  he  shipped  his 
brother  Algerine  to  a  foreign  realm,  and  sold  him  for  a  galley- 
slave,  to  one  of  a  religion  differing  from  his  own  ?  Has  he 
denied  to  a  portion  of  his  own  countrymen  the  right  to  read 
the  Koran,  (his  Bible,)  and  sold  those  countrymen  into  slavery 
to  raise  funds  to  send  that  same  Koran  to  those  who  were  ig- 
norant of  its  contents  in  other  lands  ?  Has  he  ever  claimed 
the  wife  and  daughters  of  his  Mahometan  brother  as  his  prop- 
erty ?  Has  he  robbed  the  frantic  mother  of  her  babe,  and 
with  the  price  of  that  babe's  body  and  soul  replenished  his 
communion  cup?  Nay,  has  he  even  compelled  the  heart- 
broken mother,  if  she  observe  the  ordinances  of  her  religion 
at  all,  to  drink  from  that  cup  the  wine  which  was  purchased 
with  her  own  child's  blood  ?  Such  enormities  even  the  tongue 
of  calumny  dares  not  impute  to  the  Algerine  pirate,  in  a  soli- 
tary instance.  And  yet  they  are  the  settled  policy  of  no  in- 
considerable portion  of  the  American  clergy  !  They  stain 
and  darken  almost  every  page  of  the  modern  history  of  the 
American  church;  and  if  generally  known,  they  would  render 
that  church  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  the  heathen  of  every 
realm  on  the  globe ! 

My  task  is  done.  My  pledge  is  redeemed.  I  have  here 
drawn  a  true  but  painful  picture  of  the  American  church  and 
clergy.  I  have  proved  them  to  be  a  BROTHERHOOD  OP 
THIEVES  !  I  have  shown  that  multitudes  of  them  subsist  by 
ROBBERY,  and  make  THEFT  their  trade! — that  they  plunder 
the  cradJe  of  its  precious  contents,  and  rob  the  youthful  lover 
of  his  bride  !  —  that  they  steal  "  from  principle,"  and  teach 
their  people  that  slavery  "  is  not  opposed  to  the  will  of  God," 
but  "is  A  MERCIFUL  VISITATION"!  —  that  they  excite  the  mob 


72 

to  deeds  of  violence,  and  advocate  LYNCH  LAW  for  the  sup- 
pression of  the  sacred  right  of  speech  !  —  I  have  shown  that 
they  sell  their  own  sisters  in  the  church  for  the  SERAGLIO, 
and  invest  the  proceeds  of  their  sale  in  BIBLES  for  the  heathen ! 
—  that  they  rob  the  forlorn  and  despairing  mother  of  her  babe, 
and  barter  away  that  babe  to  the  vintner  for  wine  for  the 
Lord's  supper !  I  have  shown  that  nearly  all  of  them  legalize 
slavery,  with  all  its  barbarous,  bitter,  burning  wrongs,  and 
make  PIRACY  lawful  and  honorable  commerce  ;  and  that  they 
dignify  slave-holding  and  render  it  popular,  by  placing  MAN- 
STEALERS  in  the  Presidential  chair !  I  have  shown  that  those 
who  themselves  abstain  from  these  enormities,  are  in  church 
fellowship  with  those  who  perpetrate  them  ;  and  that,  by  this 
connection,  they  countenance  the  wrong,  and  strengthen  the 
hands  of  the  oppressor  !  I  have  shown  that  while  with  their 
lips  they  profess  to  believe  that  LIBERTY  is  God's  free  and 
impartial  gift  to  all,  and  that  it  is  "inalienable"  they  hold 
2,500,000  of  their  own  countrymen  in  the  most  abject  bond- 
age ;  thus  proving  to  the  world,  that  they  are  not  Infidels 
merely,  but  blank  ATHEISTS  —  disbelievers  in  the  existence  of 
a  God  who  will  hold  them  accountable  for  their  actions !  — 
These  allegations  are  all  supported  by  evidence  which  none 
can  controvert,  and  which  no  impartial  mind  can  doubt.  The 
truth  of  them  is  seen  on  every  page  of  our  country's  history  ; 
and  it  is  deeply  felt  by  more  than  two  millions  of  our  en- 
chained countrymen,  who  now  demand  their  plundered  rights 
at  their  hands.  In  making  this  heart-rending  and  appalling 
disclosure  of  their  hypocrisy  and  crimes,  I  have  spoken  with 
great  plainness,  and  at  times  with  great  severity  ;  but  it  is  the 
severity  of  truth  and  love.  I  have  said  that  only  which  I 
could  not  in  kindness  withhold ;  and  in  discharging  the  pain- 
ful duty  which  devolved  upon  me  in  this  regard,  I  have  had 
but  a  single  object  in  view  —  the  redemption  of  the  oppressor 
from  his  guilt,  and  the  oppressed  from  his  chains.  To  this 
darling  object  of  my  heart,  this  Letter  is  now  dedicated.  As 
it  goes  out,  through  you,  to  the  public,  a  voice  of  terrible 
warning  and  admonition  to  the  guilty  oppressor,  but  of  conso- 
lation, as  I  trust,  to  the  despairing  slave,  I  only  ask  for  it,  that 
it  may  be  received  with  the  same  kindness,  and  read  with  the 
same  candor,  in  which  it  has  been  written. 

With  great  respect  and  affection, 

Your  sincere  friend, 

S.  S.   FOSTER. 
Canterbury,  N.  H.,  July,  1843. 


READER^  are  you  a  member  of  either  of  the  great 
religious  sects  of  the  country?  or,  in  other  words,  do 
you  belong  to  the  "Brotherhood  of  Thieves"?  If  so, 
quit,  I  entreat  you,  this  unfortunate  and  inglorious  con- 
nection !  "  Come  out  from  among  them,  and  touch  not 
the  unehean  thing;"  and  henceforth  "  enter  not  into  their 
counsels."  Turn  your  back  upon  the  church,  and  repu- 
diate your  allegiance  to,  the  government;  for  they  have 
conspired  together  for  the  enslavement  of  a  sixth  portion 
of  your  countrymen !  You  cannot  retain  connection 
with  either  without  giving  character  and  countenance  to 
slavery,  and  thereby  involving  yourself  in  its  enormous 
guilt.  God  and  the  good  of  every  nation  abhor  such 
connection,  and  it  is  most  disgraceful  to  yourself. 
Would  you  join  a  church  whose  members  legalized 
horse-stealing  ?  Would  you  enter  into  political  relations 
with  freebooters,  pledging  them  aid  and  protection,  and 
uniting  your  destinies  with  theirs,  both  in  peace  and  in 
war  ?  If  not,  then  separate  yourself  from  the  political 
and  ecclesiastical  institutions  of  the  country,  and  become 
an  abolitionist  indeed !  Too  long  already  have  you 
upheld  the  hand  which  holds  the 'lash  !  Too  long  have 
you  quieted  the  guilty  conscience  of  the  enslaver  !  Too 
long  have  you  dishonored  yourself  by  standing  before 
the  world  in  political  and  ecclesiastical  fellowship  and 
alii  nice  with  the  worst  enemies  of  the  human  race ! 
Quit,  then,  your  unnatural  and  unmanly  position,  and 
enlist,  heart  and  hand,  in  the  glorioxis  moral  revolution 
which  is  now  sweeping  over  the  land  like  a  mighty 
tornado,  and  whose  motto  is,  "  No  UNION  WITH 
SLAVEHOLDERS ! " 


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